WFMW-Mini City

Well, I have to say that there is one bane to the sanity of preschool teachers and mommies everywhere: RAINY DAYS. Worse is several in a row. So, this week I am giving you guys an activity my preschool classes loved, but that could also be adapted for older or younger kids.


Mini City

Supplies needed:
Masking tape
small cars
Others for fun:
various boxes of food wrapped in tin foil or decorated with crayon coloring
little people or dolls
legos


Before taping you floor or carpet, test the tape on a small area to make sure it can easily be removed. leaving the tape on the floor for more than a day may also make it gummy and difficult to remove. DON'T use duck tape if you plan on leaving it down for more than a day. I found scotch tape to be the easiest to get up and if you have older kids and darker carpet, you could even let them "paint" the road ways with lines using a couple of colored pens or crayons. You could also certainly do this with roadway with blocks or other barriers to define the road, if you have enough to do it.

Directions:

Use the masking tape on your floor or carpet to create an indoor roadway for small cars. Very young children will enjoy a simple roadway with any of their appropriatly sized cars to run their cars along. (Very young kids shouldn't use the matchbox cars if they are still trying to "eat" toys)

Older children will enjoy intricate roadways running throughout the house, adding parking lots, shops, schools, and accessorizing with the dollhouses, toy people, and animals.

You could even add a "raceway" for the cars and time how fast the kids can get their cars going down the "drag strip". (This activity should be done one at a time so there is no pushing) This is also a great way to wear out the kids before nap time, or to just give you a little down time as they tire out!

Decorating boxed food for skyscrapers is easy, if you dont mind using tin foil to wrap them in. Or you could take the time with your older children to either paint, color, or cut out their own buildings for the city or country scene they want to make. You could even have the kids paint, color, draw their own backgrounds on normal paper and tape them to the wall (again, test the tape on a small piece of wall before you tape colorings everywhere) and have a landscape for the little cars and people to enjoy.


Well, I hope this helps all of you trying to figure out what to do on a rainy day, or what to do with a weeks worth of rainy days! Head on over to Rocks in My Dryer for more fun ideas! And Good Luck!