The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

Paint Tracks!

by

 We had fun with some toy cars, trains and trucks the other night, using lots of paint and paper to make tyre tracks (and a splendid mess!)

This is an activity we used to do at school and it always proved as a fun way to get boys involved with creative projects! It is a great combination of play, painting and printing and the results look fabulous.

We rolled a digger, baby toy car and small train in a tray of paint (a few colours mixed together.)

I sellotaped some sheets of paper together to make a long road and she rolled the vehicles down them back and forth to create tyre prints and wheel tracks.

Each vehicle produced different patterns and thicknesses.

We had to move it to the floor so that she cold really get into the playing element and she “needed” lots and lots of paper!

The overlapping tracks look great!

The finished products! Lots and lots of tyre print pictures, each one telling a different “journey story.”

A close up of some of the great patterns that were created.

The big truck gave the best results. I’m pretty sure a toy motorbike and tractor would be just brilliant to add to the mix for a range of tyre thicknesses and the comparative marks they would make. If only we had some!

And this was seriously achievable for Little Pop (11 months) because all she had to do was roll back and forth and play with it. She needed to lick it and spin the wheels too, of course. That’s what babies do!

Her finished masterpiece.
If you are in an educational setting (or have a large patio) you could also try rolling real tyres in water and then across the playground to make huge tyre tracks! We used to do this and the kids would race the tyres by running behind them and pushing them! The resulting criss-cross of prints was fabulous. If you are really brave you could even dip bicycle wheels and ride-on car wheels in paint and ride them around on huge sheets of paper! Too much fun.

This activity is good for:
* Engaging boys in creative projects
* Developing imagination and creativity
* Fine motor skills (holding vehicles)
* Gross motor skills (rolling back and forth)
* Knowledge and Understanding of the World: tyres/ tracks/ car parts/ wheels/ comparing vehicles
* Sensory and messy fun!

Comments

  1. SarahF says

    Max has loved this when we’ve done it in the past. The wheels enable him to go crazy! Must do it again, it’s been a while.

    Talking of prints, I found two ideas in Toddler’s Busy book which we enjoyed: Turning a muffin pan over and painting the circles, then laying paper on top to take prints. And painting bubblewrap and laying paper over that.

  4. Philippa says

    I love this activity …. We tried this idea outside on the concrete last week using some homemade cornflour paint it was lots of fun

  7. Rashi says

    you got nice patterns at the end, very innovative way of engaging kids and also extracting some creativity through their craft.