Learning Lot Parking Garage

 I loved this parking garage idea from Lilla a and wanted to create one for my youngest.  I have seen other similar ideas over the years, but this is my first attempt at this version.  We did make an adorable and well-loved parking garage for my eldest years ago which is now long gone. Click the image below to see how it was created.

Parking Garage Learning Lot

Materials

Cardboard box

hot glue gun and glue sticks

exacto-knife or other blade for cutting cardboard

paint (blue, green, red, black, white)

yellow, blue and green popsicle sticks

number stickers (optional)

letter stickers (optional)

Creating the Lot

 Grab a card board box– a shorter box is easier to work with, but any really will do.  I had to hot glue one end in place because of the way my box was put together. You may or may not need to do this.  I then trimmed all the edges to the same height being sure that the sides were low enough for my son to reach in and play comfortably.

I then drew the doors on one end of the box and cut them out using a sharp blade. I cut each door differently so they all opened in a different way.  One opens like a typical door, another opens up and the third opens downward.

My son painted the outside of the box brown and together we painted the three doors blue, green and red.

I mixed some black and white paint to create gray for the floors. I wanted them to look like the cement of a real parking garage.

Finally, I added the details to the parking garage learning lot.

The yellow lines between the parking spaces are yellow popsicle sticks I received from CraftProjectIdeas.com. I trimmed one end of the sticks so they were flush with the box and hot glued them down.

I cut two yellow popsicle sticks apart to create the dotted line down the middle of the lot and hot glued them in place.

I had some number stickers left over from a school project my son and I did earlier in the year and used them to number the parking spaces.

 Once the inside was complete, I finished the outside.

I used a black pen to number each door.

I cut apart red, green and blue popsicle sticks and created the dotted lines for each door to the parking garage learning lot.

Finally I added the word “Parking” to the back of the lot. My stickers would not stay and my son was dying to play with the lot so I quickly taped them into place.

And viola! The parking garage learning lot was done and my son literally grabbed it, ran out to the porch and began playing. For now, he is just playing with it. I do have some more specific learning activities planned for another time.

Parking Garage Learning Lot Learning Ideas

Honestly, just playing with this learning lot is learning enough for my son, but if you are looking for some extension ideas, here they are:

Print the two sets of cards below.  Click on the image to download the templates. Cut the cards apart and put them into two piles- one pile of number cards and one pile of colored dot cards.

Color Practice: Using only the color cards, have your child choose a card and enter the lot through the colored door.

Color and Number Practice: Have your child choose one card from each pile.  He has to then enter the lot through the door of the color on his card and park in the space with the number on the card. For example, if he chose green and 9. He would enter the garage through the green door and park  in space number 9.

Number Matching: Grab between 1 and 12 small cars. Label each car with masking tape and a number (1-12).  Have your child choose a color card and a number car. He then matches the number on the card with the correctly labeled car, drive it through the color door on the card he chose and park it in the correct space.

Simple Addition:  Using only the cards 1-6 and the color cards, have your child select two number cards, add them and then enter through the door on the color card he selected.

Plus One/Two/Three: Using your labeled cars, have your child choose a car (for example #4), drive through the #1 door then added 4+1 and park in the spot for the answer of the addition problem (space #5).

How would you use your learning lot?

font courtesy of:

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AFTER SCHOOL LINK UP

Love these ideas from last week’s linky:

Keep them reading!!

10 Ways to Help Readers Grow this Summer from This Reading Mama 

23 Reading Resources from B-Inspired Mama

The After School Link Up is a great place to share ideas and to find new ideas to do with your children after school or in your homeschool.  The After School Link Up goes live every Monday. So, if you are a blogger, an educator or just some one looking for some good ideas, be sure to stop by Boy Mama Teacher Mama (or the other co-hosts) on Mondays and see what others have to share.

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