Gross MotorKindergartnersPreschoolersToddlers25 Comments
This easy setup tape road race track is perfect for toddlers who like things that go! Bonus, let them help with clean up for fine motor fun.
To me, a tape road is a no-brainer simple activity to do.
With all boys in the house, we’re always doing ‘things that go’.
And we build roads constantly.
Whether it’s from train tracks, drawing roads, making roads from blocks… there always seems to be roads involved.
This is such a simple activity, there’s really nothing to it.
Preparing a Tape Road for Toddlers
Supplies Needed:
- Painters tape
- cars, trucks or ‘toys that go’
- ride on cars or toys (optional)
Using painter’s tape I marked out a road that went through our entire downstairs for my toddlers.
TIP: In my experience the best I’ve found for wood floors is the tape for delicate surface. Test on your floor first before taping it all up!
I put down lines of tape to make roads throughout the entire downstairs.
The road went through rooms, made intersections, went around rugs and under tables.
In previous years, I’ve made a bigger tape race track, so ride-on toys could fit between the lines (see below).
This time, I decided to make it smaller to get the kids crawling around.
Also got them thinking more imaginatively rather than just speeding through the house as fast as they could.
We did do a little learning game with it, unsuccessfully.
Louis was not in the mood.
The tape roads are still up, so I may try that again with him another day.
For now, the boys are just enjoying driving along the tape road, here and there, throughout the day.
Larger Tape Road Race Track for Toddlers
Making a large tape road for the boys to ride through in the house was much needed.
It was a day that they needed to get rid of some of their extreme amount of energy and get moving.
The boys have a ‘Super Cycle’ -Big Wheels- left in the house from a Christmas present (thankfully now that its warming up, that’s going outside!), and a ride-on fire truck.
If you have boys – especially – I’m sure you have some sort of ride on toys too.
They used that to ride through the tape road for toddlers that I made.
Other things could be used too if you don’t have ride on toys in the house (I’m lucky and have a pretty big house that we do keep some inside), but we’ve done roads using dump trucks and tractors too.
So whatever ‘vehicle’ you have to push through the tape road would work too!
I added little squares of red and yellow to intersections (yep, we had intersections and crossings all over).
I planned them to be stop signs and yields.
The boys didn’t quite grasp what that meant.
They still used them in their play, but it wasn’t quite ‘road legal’ and correct.
Oh well! It added an extra bit of fun for them and helped with their pretend play.
Burn off Excess Energy With This Large Tape Race Track
They made the loop many times around the tape road track. Burning off some of the energy.
It was a little crazy for a bit, but totally worth hearing their giggles as they were racing through it.
I found it especially nice to see one stop at one of the ‘signs’ to let the other one go.
It didn’t always happen that way, but it was a nice break from the usual ‘I have to be first!’ that I hear all the time.
Cleaning up the Tape Road for Toddlers is Perfect for Fine Motor Skills Building
George insisted he help with cleaning up the tape when we were done.
Which was fine by me! I usually encourage it as part of the activities.
It was a great fine motor activity for him too, peeling up all the pieces of tape…
Another simple activity George and I did recently is with water. So simple, but definitely fun and worth doing!
How do toddlers develop gross motor skills?
From throwing things like stuffed animals, to kicking balloons, walking on a tape balance beam, jumping to high five, to simply driving trucks on a tape road. There are so many fun and simple ways to help toddlers develop their gross motor, or large muscle skills at home!
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Jodi Becker says
This tape road is a great idea…and super simple, love it! It gives the kids guidelines to they aren’t just racing around house and banging into furniture.
shannon says
Awsome idea,my grandson loved it, had so much fun. We usually go outside and make dirt roads, little hard when it is raining, thank u for that idea,
Scott says
Tape roads are one of the favorite activities for every group of children I’ve had. They love it. They really enjoy creating their own roads with rolls of tape and scissors. (5-6 year olds)
Kathleen says
This is a lot of fun and a great idea, but be careful. . . . not sure if I left the tape down too long (2 days), but when I pulled it up it also pulled up the polyurethane from our hardwood floors. They have never looked the same. . . .oops!
jenny says
Interesting idea!!! My 4 years old boy has a track for cars painted on the carpet. This is really different, he will like it!!
Jamie Reimer says
Thanks Jenny! I’m sure he will!