Cardboard car parking for toddlers

A very easy-to-make cardboard car parking playmat for toddlers !! All Toddlers love little cars and car parking lots. This one is quite distinct where the parking garages are made in different shapes. Combined with few shape flashcards, they are fun to play with. Kids see the displayed card and find the shape garage and take the car on the road to the respective garage.

Watch the video to learn how I made it or read on for step by step instructions & pictures.

Things needed to make a cardboard car parking garage

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• Cardboard sheets
• Acrylic paint
• Hot glue gun
• Cutter & scissors
• Felt sheets  or color papers
• Colour tape
• Black marker & stencil ( to mark parking lot)
• Decorative stones like these

Step 1: Making the Shape car garages

Grab a thin strip (approx 7cm) of a cardboard sheet and fold it into shapes. Here, the depth of the garage is 7cm. I kept the base width of each shape more than 5cm so that the car can be parked freely. In particular, make only shapes that have a flat side. I made a square, rectangle, semi-circle, Pentagon, triangle and also a trapezium.

Step 2: Road

Next, draw roads on cardboard and cut them out using a cutter. Paint it with black acrylic color.

Step 3: Assemble the playmat

Choose a big base cardboard sheet and start assembling the garages and the road strip. You can choose your own layout of roads and garages, but make sure there is one side that is fully uninterrupted for easy accessibility. Use number stencil and a black marker to mark the parking lots. I have marked 5 parking lots as we have 5 Hotwheels cars.

Step 4: Add-ons for cardboard car parking mat

All these are completely optional, but including this would give the playmat a great finish. Add a few green spaces and water bodies. Use felt sheets or color papers. I have added green and blue felt and some small stones for the landscape area. Finally, I also made some paper trees on the playmat. 

Step 5: Shape Flashcards for car parking game

Cut some square pieces out of cardboard and draw the shape of garages. So now when it is shown, the kid sees the flashcard, names it and finds the garage of similar shape and takes the car on the road and park it there. This is a fun way to learn shapes.

This also serves as a small world playmat where kids can create stories and play with Playmobil characters or wooden pegs. 

Now here are some ideas for garages for each age group.

Also, check my other post on how to make a bookshelf for kids here. More DIY cardboard crafts can be found on my Youtube channel. Don’t forget to subscribe t.o my channel. 

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