Wharewhare motokā – Car bingo

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

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.