Car Mat for Pre-Writing
Young pre-school kids love playing with cars, and they are developing a whole slew of skills while they are playing. It is the perfect activity that is simple, can be self-directed or adult influenced, and every part of the activity works on a skill that is needed in life. When you play on a car mat, you use the car to follow the roads, find the gas station to drive to and fill up your car, turn left, turn right, go through a tunnel, and try not to crash into anything (or crash into lots of things on purpose). These little movements and tasks that happen during play help to develop visual perception as you scan the car mat, and find the places to go. You need to follow the road, which is a great pre-writing skill as a pre-cursor to following lines.
Follow the road.
Find the ice-cream store.
Let’s go to the lake.
Following the roads on the car mat
Materials:
- Car mat
- Cars
Skills:
- Pre-writing
- Arm movement/ strength /range of motion
- Visual perceptual skills
Check out some more activities that you can do with cars and roads.
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Do you know the specific car mat the child is playing with in the picture? I would love to purchase it!
The mat is actually a really old floor puzzle from discovery toys. I did a quick search and they are not made any more, but you can find used ones on ebay. It is called the discovery toys adventure floor puzzle.