
Wharewhare motokā – Car bingo Activity
Why do it?
We play car bingo so that tamariki can:
- strengthen their observational skills
- enjoy car journeys more
- participate in an activity that’s adaptable for different ages
- help to create an activity using everyday materials
How to do it
1. On a card, draw 9 squares that are big enough for a picture in each square.
2. Draw or find pictures of things you’re likely to see on a road trip and put one in each square.
- Make most of them things that are easy to find, such as cars, trucks or vans of different colours; ambulance; police car; fire engine; petrol tanker; digger; road worker; stop sign; give way sign; pedestrian crossing; marae; caravan; church; bus; boat; traffic lights; two-storey house; dog; cow; cat; seagull; river; bridge.
- Have some items that are the same on all the cards and some that are different.
3. Give each player a pen or pencil to mark the square when they’ve seen the item.
- Rather than wait until every square has been marked to decide the ‘winner’, start with a ‘line’ first, which can be made up, down or diagonally on the board.
Other ideas for long car journeys:
- Ētahi atu whakaaro. Play car counting: Each tamaiti chooses a colour of car to look for and count — this game works well if there are many other cars on the road.
- Make the bingo cards more challenging by including a variety of road signs, gas stations or familiar businesses such as McDonald’s or KFC.
Using more te reo Māori
Horse | Hoiho |
Cow | Kau |
Black and white cow | Kau pango me te mā |
Dog | Kuri |
Caravan | Whare wīra |
Church | Whare karakia |
Traffic lights | Rama ārahi |
Bus | Pahi |
Ambulance | Waka tūroro |
Boat | Waka |
Truck | Taraka |
Two-storey house | Whare papanga rūma rua |
Stop sign | Kurupae tūnga |
Go sign | Kurupae haere |
River | Awa |
Bridge | Arahanga |
Line | Rārangi |
House | Whare |