As part of our garden renovation, we had to move about 300 block paving bricks to clear a space for our new patio. It took a lot longer than I expected and was back breaking work (I am so unfit). While we were outside, I set this activity up partly so I had fewer bricks to carry and partly to keep Sophie entertained.

I arranged a few of the bricks in a rectangle shape and drew some road markings on with chalk. I have mentioned before that Sophie seems to have the enclosing schema so I wasn’t surprised when she sat right in the middle to play.

She enjoyed using the chalk to draw her own road markings onto the bricks as well as pushing the cars around and making ‘brrrmm brrrmm’ sounds.

I plan to extend this activity by including some loose parts in Sophie’s play area so that she can create her own structures. I love the use of the logs, painted wooden planks and the drain pipes in this activity from Forest School which were used to create a race course. It has lots of scope for older children too who could use different materials to make ramps then investigate which ramps the cars travel the fastest on.

This activity is good for:

• Shape, space and measure – I arranged the bricks for Sophie but as she gets older she could create her own simple structures and arrangements.
• The World – playing with small-world models such as cars and roads.
• The World – exploring that things are used in different ways e.g. a toy car for pushing.
• Being Imaginative – beginning to make-believe by pretending.

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