How to Make a Car Game

Make scorecards for a billboard/sign game. Use lined paper or make sheets on your computer. Start each line with a capital letter, followed by a blank line: A________, B_________. Use every letter in the alphabet, or give each player a random set of letters to work with. Players fill in the blanks with words beginning with those letters from signs they spot as you drive down the road. To make the game more challenging, the first word on the sign must start with the given letter.

Before you leave home, create cards for Bingo or a Scavenger Hunt. Cut pictures from magazines and catalogs, or use clipart cartoons. To make a Bingo card, draw a grid that is 5 squares wide by 5 squares long. Put a “Free” square in the center box and glue a picture or cartoon in each of the other boxes. Give players a sheet of stickers to cover each picture when they have spotted it outside the car.

Bring a map of the United States in the car and play License Plate Bingo. Instruct players to scan the license plates of other cars and trucks on the road. When someone spots a plate from a new state, shout it out and mark that state off the map. Continue playing until you have covered each state.

You don’t actually need to make anything to play “Pack My Bag.” For this game, the first player plans a voyage and “packs his bag” with an item he sees on the road that begins with the letter “A.” The second player “packs her bag,” putting in the item that Player 1 packed and adding an item that begins with the letter “B.” For example, Player 1 says, “I’m going on a vacation and I’m packing my bag. I’m taking an apple tree.” Player 2 says, “I’m going on a vacation and I’m packing my bag. I’m taking an apple tree and a beehive.” Go through the entire alphabet and coach each other to remember every item in the bag.