This week, my kids and I have been reading "If I were Alive During the American Revoution". We have been talking about wars, the pledge of allegiance, the thirteen original colonies, and more. Given that we are driving across the country to Massachusetts, I thought it would be fun to do a license plate game. On the way here, we tried to remember the plates we saw, but kept losing track. I wanted to print out little license plates for the kids to fill in, but my printer is still at my parent's house.
We have been chosing paint colors for our house and one day, I was staring at the color strip and was like these are perfect sized for a license plate game. I took 7 color shade strips for each of my kids' favorite colors, cut them in half horizontally, and glued them to the back of a CEREAL BOX!
For the big kids, I wrote the full names of the states:
For the little kids, I just wrote the two letter state abbreviation. Each of the thirteen colonies has a star over the top, we are trying to see if we can see each one. Also, I attached a pen to each board so they can check them off:
I hope this makes the 17+ hours in the car more fun for the kids- wish me luck!
**POST EDIT on July 11, 2011- I was rushing to post this because of course, I was finishing the project last minute before the drive, and I wanted to post photos of the before product, because after the drive, they would be all colored and crossed out. I realized that the two letter abbreviations for Kansas (should be KS) and Kentucky (should be KY) were written incorrectly on the two letter abbreviation charts. I corrected them for my kids- corrected photo unavailable because the kids HAD A BLAST with these in the car. I apologize, and yes, I AM quite certain I am smarter than a fifth grade, just busier and more scatterbrained. This was such an awesome thing to have in the car, the kids didn't want to go to bed because they were afraid they'd miss something, in fact, they are still in the car, and we have been able to cross off a few more since our trip. This is HIGHLY recommended for a trip in the car if you are taking one!!!
i am obsessed with repurposing paint chip sample strips. i am sure the security personnel at walmart know me well because i probably take 10 samples every time i go there:)
ReplyDeletehappy travels!
that was corey, by the way;) i forgot to add my name. hope to see you all sunday.
ReplyDeleteI love them too! My kids are having so much fun in the car with these! We have already found over 10 and are still in IL. I am so embarrassed because I wrote KA for Kansas not KS- oops.
ReplyDeleteOMG I messed up Kentucky too, I'll have to edit this when I get to a computer my phone won't scroll down on the edit. That's what I get for rushing to post this.
ReplyDeleteThis is great! We're off for our own major road trip this week and I was printing out License Plate eye spy USA Map to color in and bingo games -- but this is much more colorful -- and I'm a sucker for paint chips!
ReplyDeleteFondly,
Pink and Green Mama
MaryLea