Cereal Box City

Travelling with a toddler for three weeks meant that we had to either: (a) carry toys (like our Toddler Travel Activity Kit), or (b) simply improvise! Master 2 (nearly 3) being obsessed with (and during our travels: totally immersed by) planes, trains, cars, trucks, buses etc..., meant that much of our play time revolved around 'things that go'!

Whilst staying with a friend, this Cereal Box City ticked all our boxes:
* It took all of 5 minutes to make (whilst eating a bowl of cereal myself!)
* It used recycled boxes (enviro-friendly, cheap/free, no fuss, temporary)
* It can be packed up into a neat little pile of cards (space saving - necessary whilst house guests!)
* Engaging and novel enough for B to happily play independently whilst we got ready for the day
* Visual perception (matching the cards), hand eye coordination (lining up the cards, rolling the vehicles along the roads), fine motor (picking up the cards), core strength and hand dominance practise (crawling along - using one arm to stabilise and another to move the vehicle)...
* Imaginative play for a imagination fuelled toddler!

Materials used:
 - 3 cereal boxes for roads and train tracks, and another for the cereal box bridge. I decided we didn't need to keep our cereals in the boxes - that the plastic bags within were enough whilst holidaying:-)
- A black texta
- Scissors
- A little tape for the cereal box bridge
- The clipboard we took along made a great tunnel; and
- We'd carried a few favourite, cheap vehicles, signs and little people along with us, so the 'city' came alive pretty quickly!

And the roads and tracks continued to move and reconnect ...

Arghhhh! Look out - traffic Jam alert!!!

 

I worried about what might become of the little trains and carriages on the top of the cereal box bridge, but turns out it was all under control ... "phew!" ... or not... *CRASH!!!!*

And then there was that fabulous underground tunnel the couch provided!

And that's by no means the end of the life of the Cereal Box City! It transforms into some Cereal Box City Dominoes and a 3D Cereal Box City Construction Kit! So much fun!!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like to check out these:
Cardboard Car Ramp
Aeroplanes and Gross Motor Fun
Puppet Theatre - Homemade with Love

Thanks so much for visiting Kids Play Space!
'til soon,
Happy Playing!
Anna :-)

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