52® Fun Things to do in the Car

By Lynn Gorden

Illustrated by Susan Synanki & Karen Johnson

Table of Contents

Car Activity Box

Jolly Roger

One to One Hundred

Puppet Show

A-Cownting

Hum That Tune

One Word Stories

Phrase Plates

Silly Songs

Alphabet Objects

It’s In

Rainbow of Color

Word Plates

Conversation Plates

Name That Tune

Imaginature

Playground!

Rememory

Silly Speak

Car-o-Glyphics

Pretend-a-Plane

Eagle Eye

Story Round

Catch the Wave

Alphabet Categories

Hot Words

Adventure Mystery

Strange Questions

ESP

Home Sweet Home

Charades

Post Office

Car-respondence

Invention

Ridiculous Riddles

Little White Lines

Tongue Twisters

Color Game

Breath Animals

Picture Windows

Packing a Suitcase

If I were…

Back Words

Car Gobbler

Hanimation

Amazing Braiding

Invent-a-map

Categories

Ship’s Trip Log

Super Heroes

Activity Lap Box

Alphabet Story

Crack Up

More eTitles in the 52® Series

Copyright

Car Activity Box

All this can fit in a shoe box under the seat.

White paper
Colored paper
Tape
Markers
Pens or pencils
Dry-erase markers or window markers
A deck of cards
Postcards or writing paper
A small notebook
Some yarn or ribbon

Jolly Roger

Pretend the car is a ship and you are all pirates. Can you design a treasure map and a flag that represents your “ship”? Take turns being the capt’n and the maties. There better not be a bilge rat among you. Can you talk like pirates? Here are some phrases that may come in handy: Arrr! That be a fine cow by the road. Avast ye hearties! Me thinks me needs a rest stop. Shiver me timbers! I’ve smelt a skunk that went to Davy Jones’ locker. What other expressions can you make up?

One to One Hundred

Find every number from one to one hundred, in order, outside the car. Everybody can help find the numbers, calling them out as they see them on signs and license plates. If you reach one hundred quickly, see how much higher you can go.

Puppet Show

Materials: Lunch-sized paper bags, Crayons

With lunch-sized paper bags and crayons, you can make paper bag puppets. Then put on a puppet show for each other or for people in the other cars driving by.

A-Cownting

Each person picks a side of the road to count cows on, and whichever side counts the most cows wins. But if either side passes a cemetery, they lose all of their cows. This game can still be played in the city—where there aren’t usually any cows—by counting people wearing hats instead. And instead of passing a cemetery, in the city, passing a police car would cause that side to lose all their points. If there are neither cows nor people with hats around, pick something else to count.

Hum That Tune

Take turns humming a song and letting the others in the car guess what song it is. Whoever guesses correctly gets to hum the next one. For a bigger challenge try clapping the rhythm of the song, or slapping it on your knees.

One Word Stories

Somebody starts a story by saying just one word. Then everybody takes a turn adding the next word to the story as quickly as they can, until the story is over or until somebody stalls too long trying to think of the next word.

Phrase Plates

Make up as many phrases as you can using the letters from license plates. Use each letter to begin a word in your phrase, and feel free to mix up the letters on your license plate to make new phrases. For example, if the license plate is 234PDQ, one phrase could be “Pretty Daring Quail” or, if you mix up the letters, “Dear Quirky People.”

Silly Songs

After deciding on a favorite famiiar tune, everybody makes up new words to go with the melody. This can be done by going around in order, with each person adding a line, or just by singing along and making up a story to the old tune as you go. Making up a song about the trip you’re taking is a good way to remember the places you’ve already visited.

Your songs may be so good you’ll want to record them in a car songbook, a blank notebook kept in the car just for that purpose.

Alphabet Objects

Find an object outside the car that starts with each letter of the alphabet, in order. Call things out as you find them. This can be played with everyone in the car building one alphabet or with each person completing their own. When you are doing individual alphabets, an object can be used only once, so the first person to spot the things gets that letter. Whoever completes the alphabet first gets to choose the next game.

It’s In

Think of a category: red things, things with wheels, things with stripes, things in the shade, things that are broken. Don’t say what your category is. Point out three things that fit in your category as you pass by them. Everybody in the car has to try to figure out what the category is by pointing out things and asking if it is “in” (your category). You say yes or no. After they get several yeses in a row they can try to name your category.

Rainbow of Color

Materials: Pencils or crayons; Paper

Using different colored crayons, make a big rainbow of colors on a piece of paper, leaving space beneath each color to fill in with the name of something. Outside the car, find an object for every color of your rainbow. This can be played silently, by writing down the name of the object beneath its color, or you can play aloud, calling out the name and putting an X under the color.

Word Plates

Take turns picking out a license plate and seeing who can make a word that has the same letters as the license plate. The letters don’t need to be used in any special order, and you can just ignore the numbers on the plate. For example, LMP237 could make lump, maple, or plum.

Conversation Plates

Hold a conversation by making sentences from the letters on license plates. Stick to the order the letters are in on the plate. For example, a license plate might be HAY928. One possible sentence is “How Are You?” Then another player makes a sentence from another license plate, 190DPG: “Doing Pretty Good.” Keep going until the conversation stops.

Name That Tune

As soon as a song comes on the radio, the first person to recognize the song’s title, the singer, or any other detail about the song gets a point for each detail. Before you start, decide how many points it takes to win. If this gets too easy, make up harder things to recognize about the song, such as the last word in the song or the name of another song by the same artist.

Imaginature

This is a game that requires only your imagination. While driving along, look at the landscape and try and see faces, animals, or objects in the clouds, mountains, and hills. Maybe a mountain ridge looks like a sleeping giant, or a rock outcropping looks like a finger pointed at the sky. See if the others in the car see the same things you do. If you find something you really like, make up a story about it and tell it to the others.

Playground!

Pick a place such as a playground, an ice cream shop, a bookstore, or a fruit stand to be on the lookout for. If you’re looking for a fruit stand and you spot one, you have to be silent until you see the next one. Alternately, the driver stops for a break when you spot one or everyone in the car has to hum a song until the next fruit stand is passed.

Rememory

To play Rememory, somebody suggests a person, place, or thing for everybody to remember. Then take turns each remembering one thing. If you’re remembering a person, for example, you could say what color eyes she has, where she keeps her car keys, what she likes to eat, anything! Keep taking turns until no one can remember anything else and then move to another person, place, or thing.

Silly Speak

Making up your own language is a fun process. You could try to create a language where everybody speaks normally except that they add the first letter from their name in front of each word. Or try scrambling the words in your sentences so that “I want to stop,” for example, becomes “Stop I to want.”

You can also make up new words for things instead of making up a whole language. For example, you could call cars “igfrads” and stop signs “greebles.” Think of other silly words for things you see on the road.

Car-o-Glyphics

Materials: Dry-erase markers

With dry-erase or window markers you can write words backward on the side windows, or draw pictures. You can even draw pictures of the scenery you are driving through. Try to tell the story of your trip with pictures alone. Be sure to keep the markers off the seats.

Pretend-a-Plane

Pretend your car is an airplane or a spaceship. Pretend your driver is the pilot, make another person the co-pilot, and then everybody else can pick another character you would find on an airplane or spaceship, such as mechanic, flight attendant (the head flight attendant is called a purser), medic. Hold conversations, as your character, about the trip you are taking and what your mission is.

Eagle Eye

Try to guess the distance of faraway objects. Pick something big and far ahead by the roadside like a barn, or a water tower. Ask the driver to start the trip odometer. Guess how far it is. When you pass by it check the odometer. How close were you? Try it several times. Did your guesses improve? You can also guess by counting in seconds instead of distance.

Story Round

Somebody starts telling a story and, after a few minutes, points to another person who continues the story for a bit and then points to the next person. And so on until everybody has had a chance to add to the story several times or until someone ends the story. If you are stumped for how to start try a “That’s Good, That’s Bad” story. One person says a first sentence, like “There once was a girl who found a pot of gold. That’s good.” The next person imagines a reason why that is bad. (“No! That’s bad! Because it belonged to a dragon who was really angry and lit her house on fire.”) The next person thinks of a reason why that would be good (“No! That’s good! When the house burned down a secret tunnel was revealed.”), and so on.

Catch the Wave

Wave to other people in cars and semi-trucks and see them smile. Keep track of how many honk or wave back. You could even make a list of ten different types of cars or people that have to wave back before the game is over.

Alphabet Categories

Alphabet Categories is played by calling out all the animals whose names start with one letter of the alphabet. When you are done with one letter, go to another and see how many animals’ names start with that letter. This can also be played with state capitals, countries, people, and so on.

Hot Words

At the beginning of your trip, pick five “hot” words that nobody can say the whole time you are in the car. When you talk, try to make each other accidentally say the “hot” words. You can add new “hot” words or change them during the trip.

Adventure Mystery

Make up an adventure story or mystery story about your trip. Something terrible has happened (maybe someone’s birthday presents were stolen, or maybe everyone at your destination turned into a frog!). You have been given the job of figuring out the mystery and catching the villain. Be sure to include the places you pass, people you see, and where you are going in your story. Adventure heroes often get help from a mentor. Did you meet anyone who might have given you secret information that will help you on your quest? Where will you encounter the villain?

Strange Questions

Try to stump others in the car by asking questions you think no one knows the answer to. The tricky part is, you do have to know the answer. For example, you could ask what make rain clouds gray (if you know the answer) or where the ski boots are stored at home. If nobody knows the answer, you get to explain and then ask another question. Keep going until you ask a question that some else knows the answer to. Then it’s his or her turn to ask questions.

ESP

Materials: A deck of cards

To play ESP (Extra-Sensory Perception) all you need is a deck of cards. You can play alone or with somebody else. Without turning the cards over, sort them into two piles, with the ones you think are black in one pile on your lap and the ones you think are red in another. Now turn the piles over and count how many you get right. Do you believe in ESP? Try this with someone else in the car and see how they do. Are there other card games you can play?

Home Sweet Home

Have you ever wondered what kind of house you’ll live in when you grow up? Pick a side of the road and a number between one and a hundred. Count buildings that pass by on that side until you reach your number. Whether it is a mansion or a garden shed, this is your future house! Imagine what it would be like to live there.

Charades

Charades can be played in the car but instead of using your whole body, you just use your hands and face to act things out. It’s a little bit harder to do this way, so start out with single words. Whoever guesses the right word gets to go next.

Post Office

Materials: Pen or pencil; Paper

This is a good game to play when things start getting a little noisy in the car. Instead of talking, pass notes and play post office. Everybody gets some paper and a pen to write letters with. Pick somebody to be the mail carrier and deliver your notes. Write who the note is to on the outside. See how long you can go without having to talk.

Car-respondence

Materials: Postcards or writing paper; Pen

If you keep some postcards or blank paper in the car, you can take advantage of the family being together to write cards and letters to family friends. Somebody who won’t get car sick writes down what the others want to say so the letter can be from all of you.

Invention

In this game, everybody can pretend they are an inventor. Someone calls out the name of a common object, like a dog leash, and then everybody thinks up all sorts of funny uses for it, other than a dog leash. For example, a dog leash could be a belt, a laundry line, or piece of dental floss for elephants. Try to think of twenty new uses for each old, common object. Then choose another object and start all over again.

Ridiculous Riddles

Making up riddles is good, silly fun. One person in the car can ask an ordinary question, such as “Why do birds have wings?” Everyone else tries to come up with the silliest answer, like “because their parents wouldn’t let them borrow the car,” or “because roller skates don’t come small enough.” Someone may even want to start a car riddle book that you can add new riddles to every time you take a trip.

Little White Lines

How many white lines are there in a mile? Have everyone in the car guess. Then ask the driver to press the trip odometer and begin counting. Stop counting when the odometer reaches one mile. Who was the closest? Can you figure out how many white lines there are until your destination? Or between here and the next tree?

Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters are easy to make up and hard to say. Somebody calls out a topic, like “slimy seals,” and then everybody thinks of words that sound similar, like swish, smelly, and soap. You end up with a tongue twister of Slimy Seals Swish Smelly Soap. Say that three times fast! Try one of your own now.

Color Game

Color Categories is played by calling out a color and then naming everything you can think of that is that color. Go around in a circle with everyone naming something. Keep going until someone can’t think of anything that’s the right color. That person has to drop out and then the circle continues without them until there’s just one person left. The remaining person is the winner and gets to pick the color for the next round.

Breath Animals

Breath Animals are hard to make because they disappear so fast. Take turns making pictures of animals in a breath spot (which is what you get when you breathe on the window). Draw an animal as fast as you can while others try to guess what it is before it disappears. You can also write words and have others guess what you are writing.

Picture Windows

Materials: Colored paper; Tape; Window markers

With some sheets of colored paper and tape you can make picture windows. Tear shapes out of the paper and tape them to the side windows (make sure you aren’t interfering with your driver’s view). You could even tear out letters and spell words backward so people driving by can read them. Or make stained glass windows. Use a black dry erase or window marker to draw several thick lines going from any side of the window to any other side. Your lines can be wavy or straight. After you have made a bunch of intersecting lines the window should be divided up into many small shapes. Color in the shapes with different bright colors.

Packing a Suitcase

Somebody starts by saying, “I’m packing a suitcase and in it I’m putting a ______.” Then the next person repeats what the first person said and adds another item, and so on. Soon there is a whole list of things going into the suitcase that you have to remember. When somebody forgets one of the items, they drop out. The round ends when there’s one person left who can repeat all of the items in the suitcase. Then start packing another suitcase.

If I were…

To play “If I were…,” choose a kind of person you want to be and ask other people to pretend they’re a part of your character. If you decide to be a cowboy, for example, you’d start by saying “If I were a cowboy…“ Then the next person might say “I would be the cowboy’s boots,” or “I would be the cowboy’s horse.” Go around in a circle, with each person adding what they would be, until no one can think of anything more. Then it’s someone else’s turn to start “If I were…”

Back Words

In this game you need to say every-thing backward. Start by saying the alphabet backward and then try saying words backward. For example, “car” becomes “rac.” Then say whole sentences backward: “Where are we going?” becomes “Going we are where?” See how long you can talk in backward sentences. If you get really good at sentences, try singing a song backward.

Car Gobbler

Each person picks a color. The goal is to count more cars of your color than the other side counts of their color. If a car the color the other side is counting passes your car from behind, you lose all your cars and have to start over. See who can get up to one hundred cars first.

Hanimation

Hand animals are a challenge to make since you just use your hand to imitate different animals and show how they move. Take turns choosing an animal and then making it with one or both of your hands. Show each other what you’ve created and then pick another animal.

Amazing Braiding

Materials: Strips of yarn or ribbon

The back of a car seat is a great place to braid necklaces, belts, bracelets, or anything you want. Knot the ends of three pieces of yarn or ribbon together and tie them to the headrest in from of you. Separate the three pieces and put the left piece over the middle piece. Now take the right piece and put it over the new middle piece. Keep alternating sides by putting the left piece over the middle piece and then the right piece over the new middle piece. Braid until you get to the length you want and then knot it.

Invent-a-map

Materials: Crayons or markers; Paper

With crayons and paper, draw an adventure map. You can make an adventure out of where you are going by making up funny or exciting names for things in the area. The supermarket could be The Land of Endless Lines, your school could be The Fortress, and the police station The Island of the Sirens. Or you can make an imaginary treasure map. Create symbols for mountains, roads, buildings, pit traps, dangerous beasts, and live volcanoes. Make a key for your map.

Categories

Materials: Pencil or pen; Paper

To play Categories, each player makes a grid on a piece of paper with six squares across and five squares under each of those. In each square, write a description of something. For example, one row might read “black car, squirrel, stop sign, mountain, flag pole, mail box.” Then, when you see that thing, put an X in the box. The first person to get a straight line of Xs going down or across or diagonally, wins.

Ship’s Trip Log

Materials: A small notebook; Pen or pencil

Create a ship’s log of your adventures. Ask each person to describe the day’s events as one person writes them down in a notebook. At your destination see if you can find something textured to make a rubbing for your log book. Placards at parks and scenic overlooks often have raised metal letters which make good rubbings. National parks have ink pads and stamps you can stamp in your book. Then every time you get into the car for a trip, you can enter another adventure in the log book.

Super Heroes

Pretend you are a superhero. What is your name? What do you look like? Design a costume for yourself. What are your special powers? What do you do with them? What is your weakness? Are you a good superhero or a bad one? Draw a picture of your secret hideout. Do you have a super nemesis? What is his diabolical plan and how will you prevail? Are the other superheroes in the car in your adventures, too? Make up a story to include all the superheroes in the car.

Activity Lap Box

A lap box is a convenient thing to have in the car so you can play and draw easily. Make it in the house and then once it’s finished, keep it in the car. Find a box that is a good size for a desk and that fits nicely over your lap. Remove the top of the box and cut arches on both sides to fit over your legs. You could even attach a little box on one side to keep your crayons and markers from rolling away when you draw.

Alphabet Story

Say the alphabet by making a long sentence out of words starting with each letter of the alphabet. For example, “All Baked Cakes Don’t Equal Four Giant Hats…“ (who said the sentence had to make complete sense?!). See if you can get through the whole alphabet. Or you can make a story by having 26 sentences, each one starting with a letter of the alphabet: “A storm began. Big raindrops plopped on Calico’s nose. Calico hated the rain. Destiny knew that. Every time it rained she would…”

Crack Up

This is a game where the person who is “it” comes up with a funny phrase like “slimy salamanders.” Then everyone takes a turn asking them a question, like “What’s that coming out of your ear?” or “What did you have for lunch?” The person who is it has to answer every question with “slimy salamanders” without laughing. If he cracks up, the one who made him laugh is now it.

Other eTitles from the 52® Series

Look for these titles and others at your digital store:

52 Fun Things to Do in the Car

52 Fun Things to Do on the Plane

52 Cool Tricks for Kids

52 Rainy Day Activities

52 Amazing Science Experiments

52 Ways to Pamper Yourself

52 Tips for New Parents

52 Things to Try Once in Your Life

52 Great Cheap Dates

52 Relaxing Rituals

52 Ways to Stay in Love Forever

Copyright

52 Fun Things to Do in the Car

© 1994, 2008 Lynn Gordon. A Spark! production.

All rights reserved. No part of this deck may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

eISBN: 978-1-4521-0400-3

Chronicle Books LLC

680 Second Street

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.chroniclebooks.com