Paper Plate Road Trip Games! Entertain your kids in the car!

School holidays!!! Yay! I don't know about you and your kids, but we have been looking forward to having a break from the school routine!

We are also looking forward to a short farm stay.  My kids, especially Miss 8 loves animals and the thought of continuous access to farm animals has been anticipated for months now.  Whilst the drive is relatively short, both Miss 8 and Mr 5 are prone to car sickness so this rules out books and screen use in the car.  We love listening to audio books, although we probably could recite most of the ones we currently have!

I've collated some great road trip games and turned them into "Paper Plate Road Trip Games"!  Just get a handful of paper plates, a large marker and a pair of scissors.  You will be ready to hit the road in just a few minutes!

Paper Plate Road Trip Games!
1. ABC name them - Write the alphabet around the plate. Pick a category (our categories include boys names, girls names, fruit & veg, countries, sport, animals, picnic game).  You could also include other categories such as things you find in the kitchen, school, bathroom, musical instruments, etc.  

Take turns (you could even pass the plate to everyone except the driver) to work through the alphabet to name something in the category.  For example: boys names are Adrian, Bob, Cameron, etc.  

The "picnic game" has a slight variation where you need to remember what the previous person said... "I went on a picnic and brought apples." Then the next person says "I went on a picnic and brought apples and bananas".

2. Road Trip I spy - Write the alphabet around the plate. This could be played individually with one person finding things they see which begin with each letter of the alphabet or with everyone in the car taking turns.  A variation of this game could be to find words in road signs which begin with each letter of the alphabet.

3. Shape and Colour I spy - Draw shapes and colour them in around the plate.  For younger kids, they may find it easier to spy things of a certain colour or shape or both.  May be played individually or with everyone in the car.

4. Counting Cows (and other items) - Write numbers 1-20 around the plate. Name something that needs to be spotted (eg. cows, red cars, planes, construction sites, etc). This could be played individually or with everyone in the car. To add some competition, make multiple plates for each player and race to see who can count them fastest.

5. 20 Questions - Write numbers 1-20 around the plate. One person picks a person, place or thing (ie. a noun). The others in the car have 20 questions that may be asked (with the answer being yes or no) to guess the correct noun.

6. Story Telling - This game requires three plates which include a range of "characters", "settings" and "feelings". This may be played individually or with everyone in the car. Choose a one thing from each plate to tell a story. The story could end with one selection from each plate or may continue to involve each option being built into the story progressively.  Variations for older kids could include a theme (eg. tragedy, love story, suspense, epic, comedy, lost, etc).

---

With each paper plate, place a cut between each option available (eg. between each letter of the alphabet).  This enables you to "fold down" an option once it has been played. 

These paper plate games will appeal to a wide range of ages whilst working on numeracy and literacy skills in a fun way! What a great way to involve adults and kids working together.  When kids get stuck, they may learn from the adults modelling answers. Special memories of family times may be built on road trips! 

These paper plate games are perfect for a road trip and yet there is no reason these games could not be played at home or when out at a park. The paper plates act as prompts for play which are "open-ended".  Each time you play, you will probably have different responses.  How interesting to see how your kids responses change as they grow older!

These paper plate games are transportable and you could even leave them in the car for the next road trip. 

For children with special needs, these paper plates will be great visual prompts for providing some structure to car games.  There is a beginning and end point when each option is selected. They may also keep track of what is next in the game. 

Have you got a road trip planned these school holidays? What are your favourite road trip games?

I would love to hear from you if you try these paper plate games with your family!

Safe travels,

You may also like...

Let's create with Felties!

Travelling with kids ... nightmare or nothing to it?

Tapatan ...FREE printable!