Make some cardboard tube car ramps for a fun car racing activity for vehicle loving kids! Great fun for exploring motion, cause and effect and as a fun idea for rainy day play.

Cardboard Tube Car Ramps

To make these super simple cardboard tube car ramps you need:

1 cardboard wrapping paper tube

black paint

white chalk pen (or white paint and a thin paintbrush)

small cars

I’ve made it super easy for you to find the materials right here!

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You may very well have all of these things to hand already like I did. Let’s go!

Simply cut along the length of the tub, making sure to create two, even halves.

Then paint the inside of the cut tubes with the black paint and allow them to dry.

When they’re dry, add the road markings. Here in the UK our dotted lines are white, but I know some other countries have yellow markings too. As soon as that is done they are ready for play!

We first of all tried propping them up against a chair and simply enjoyed racing the cars down one by one. This was a GREAT game according to Miss 4 and baby boy, who is now 17 months.

He was particularly in awe of how fast they whizzed past and shot off the end of the ramp across the room!

Miss 4 enjoyed racing them in the two ramps at the same time, and also lining them up, counting them, talking about their colours and telling stories with them.

They then took them around the house and garden and either stood to use them or propped them up against other items. We tried using them over cushion and it became like a see-saw, which was fun to watch as the road flipped back and forth!

These are so easy to make and would be fun for travel too, if you cut them half the length. The tubes nestle into each other really well, so by cutting them you could have 4 to take around with you, along with the little cars in a tub with a lid. Perfect!

We made this fun cardboard roadway which you may love too! It would go really well together actually.

And this town within a cardboard box is always a winner!

If you enjoyed our cardboard tube car ramps play activity then you may also like these other HOMEMADE TOY ideas that we have tried before! Homemade and simple really are the two best ingredients for play.

Here are lots more TODDLER PLAY IDEAS too, if you need a quick activity for an afternoon of play!