Ever since reading the book "What Should Danny Do?" my 3 year old son has been asking if he could have a "supa-dupa-lupa race car track." Today we finally got around to making it. It was super easy to make and both my kids went crazy over it. This playful lesson teaches kids about engineering, creativity and gravity.
SUPPLIES: I love this project because it is so basic! All you will need are some paper towel rolls, and/or toilet paper rolls, masking tape and scissors.
I found that the race track stayed most stable if you cut a long rectangular shape out of the top portion out of the paper towel roll, leaving a full circle of paper towel roll at one or both ends, then piece them together with masking tape. Let your kids help as much as possible, maybe cutting, maybe just piecing them together, or maybe helping with the tape.
Test each portion as it grows to make sure the cars won't go flying out. Add a tunnel if there is a part that the cars are flying out of.
Raise the whole thing up onto a couch and let gravity do the work.
Making something out of nothing is the best thing in the world for kids! They will be so proud of building their own race car track!
Here is the book that inspired our race car track. In the book it was actually called a "quadruple loop crash track," but for some reason my 3 year old always referred to it as a "supa dupa lupa race car track." In the story you get to make choices for Danny, bad choices and good choices, and each choice takes you to a different outcome. It's basically a choose your adventure book, my son loves it and I bet yours would too!