What Colour Is That Car? is a simple game that can be played on any road journey, and it’s a great way to increase your child’s observation skills, as well as their understanding of colours, counting and numbers. The basic game involves calling out whenever you see a car of a specific colour and keeping a running total of how many you’ve seen, but more advanced games can involve keeping track of multiple car colours on a score sheet similar to the one that accompanies this post.
A simple score sheet for tracking the number of cars seen of different colours. Not all colours will be seen on every journey, and you’ll be amazed at the excitement when a rarely seen colour is finally spotted. In the UK, this is usually either pink or brown. To use this sheet, mark down a small line beside each coloured car when it is seen and then at the end of the journey total up the marks and put the number in the Total box. This encourages your child to improve their counting skills. You can download a copy of this score sheet for free from here.
How Long Does It Take To Play? There is no set time-limit to this game, and it can last as long as any journey. However, younger children are likely to lose interest if it is played for more than five minutes at a time. In addition, you can also play a speed variation of the basic game (see below).
Ages: Three and older. This game can be played as soon as your child starts to develop a concept of colours and cars. For older children, you can make the game more complicated to keep their interest (see variations below).
Core Life Skills It Will Help Develop: Academic Skill – Numeracy and counting, colours; Critical Thinking Skills – Observation. This game can also be used to stimulate discussions on how different people may see the world in different ways depending on how their brain works. For example, you may see a car that you consider to be green, but that your child considers to be blue, and this is because there is no hard-wired dividing line between what humans perceive as these two colours on the colour spectrum. This means each person has their own personal definition of where blue ends and green begins, and in some cultures there are no separate words for green and blue – meaning that they consider the blue of the sky and the green of the trees to be different shades of the same colour. There is an important implication here: If, when playing this game, you child uses a different colour for an ambiguously coloured car, don’t just tell them they are wrong and you are right. Instead discuss the fact that you perceive the colour differently to them and why this might be the case.
What Do You Need To Play It? This game requires nothing, but playing it can be made easier if you have a dry-erase board or a notebook to keep track of the number of cars seen. This also makes it easier to total up the number of cars seen once the game has finished. However, you can also make the game more interesting by using a pre-prepared sheet to record the number of cars seen of several different colours, such as the one shown in this post.
Preparation: No preparation is required, but it may be useful to keep a set of printed scoring sheets to hand in your car, if you are counting cars of multiple colours at once. Alternatively, you can laminate a copy of this scoring sheet so that it can be re-used time and again. Finally, if you are based in the UK, you can purchase a re-useable laminated version of this score sheet from the link in the useful products section at the end of this article.
How Do You Play It? Before starting this game, ensure that your child can see well enough out of the window to be able to see any cars that they pass. Ideally, they should be seated in the front passenger seat alongside you, but you should only do this if it is safe and legal to do so (i.e. that they can still sit in an appropriate car seat, that they can be safely strapped in, that any front passenger airbags have been de-activated, and that the seat is pushed as far back as possible). Next, one of you picks a colour of car to count. Ideally, this should be your child, but with children at the youngest age range for this game, it will be better if you pick one that you see often enough that you will see some, but not so frequently as to make it difficult to keep a count of what you’ve seen. Now you are ready to start, encourage your child to point and call out whenever they see a car of the selected colour. You can either keep a running total, or they can mark down each time they see a car of the selected colour so you can total it up later. Feel free to occasionally call out when you see cars yourself, but make sure you don’t take over the game (as it will suck all the fun out of it if your child is relegated to just keeping the tally of what you have seen!) You should also make sure you give them a chance to spot the car you have seen first before calling it out.
In the more advanced version of this game, you can use a score sheet (such as the one you can download from here) to keep track of multiple car colours. This makes it more interesting for the child, and if you select the colours correctly, you will find that they will soon become obsessed with seeing cars of the rarer colours (such as pink or brown). At the end of the game, you can total up the number seen of each colour and compare the results. This can be used to lead on to discussions about frequencies and the relative occurrence of cars of different colours and why different colours of cars are more or less popular. Similarly, on the scoring sheet mentioned above, there is a number provided which is a points score for each car colour which can be used to weight the totals based on car rarity, To do this, simply multiply the count for each colour by this point score before adding up the total score. This incorporates elements of multiplication into the game.
Download: Score sheet for recording the occurrence of cars of multiple colours: You can either print out multiple copies of this sheet, or you can print it out once and get it laminated. This will effectively turn it into a dry-erase board, and it can be used multiple times if filled in with the correct type of pen (see links to useful products below). Alternatively, if you are based in the UK, you can purchase a re-useable laminated version of this score sheet from the link in the useful products section at the end of this article.
Variations: There are many possible variations of this game. For example, if you have two children, each can count up different colours of cars to see who can see the most of their chosen colour. However, you need to ensure that they take it in turns as to who selects the first colour as one child (usually the older one) will quickly figure out that one colour of car is more common and that they can always win by selecting it. Another variation is to limit the time which the child has to count cars of a specific colour. You might, for example, give them two minutes to see how many they can count. This encourages them to actively observe their environment and assess the objects around them, and adds a more manic, and so fun, element as they start looking around faster and faster as they get closer and closer to the end of the playing time. Setting a time limit also makes it easier to play this game with multiple children on a single trip as each can take a turn to count cars of the same colour and see who can spot the most in the specified time limit.
You can also further develop the game by adding bonus scores for different types of vehicles. For example, a lorry or truck of the selected colour might score double, while a van might score triple and a motorbike five times the basic score. You can also run this game over several journeys with the aim of getting to a specific total, or to see how many you can spot in a given time period (such as a week’s worth of school runs). If you wish to make the game more advanced, you can use it as the basis for introducing the concept of frequencies by creating a bar chart of the relative occurrence of different colours of car, and by calculating the proportion or percentage of all cars recorded that belong to each colour. However, make sure that you only do this if your child is interested as it will suck the fun out of the basic game if they are not!
Links To Useful Products For This Game
Magnetic dry erase board: A magnetic dry erase board is one of my favourite tools for playing games with children to help them develop their core life skills, and it is perfect for recording the number of cars seen of one or multiple colours. Of those available, the one found here is my preferred option as they come in a range of colours and are a great size. Dry erase pens: Dry erase pens can be used to keep score either on a dry erase board, or on a laminated version of the score sheet which accompanies this post. If you don’t have any to hand, you can find a range of suitable set of pens here. Digital timer with magnet: If you are only aiming to play What Colour Is That Car? for part of a journey, or if you want to play the speed version, you will find a digital timer very useful. If you don’t have a suitable timer already, you can find a range of digital timers here. Re-useable laminated scoring sheet: While you can download the scoring sheet which accompanies this post for free, we also offer the option for you to purchase a re-useable laminated version for just £2.99, including free postage to any UK address (sorry, this option is not currently available for non-UK parents). For this price, you get a double-sided laminated score sheet, featuring the car colour sheet shown above on one side and a second similar game based on spotting different types of vehicles on the other, as well as a free dry erase pen which can be used to play this game. This sheet can be wiped clean using any dry tissue or cloth.For Parents Based In The UK
Magnetic dry erase board: A magnetic dry erase board is one of my favourite tools for playing games with children to help them develop their core life skills, and it is perfect for recording the number of cars seen of one or multiple colours. Of those available, the one found here is my preferred option as they come in a range of colours and are a great size. Dry erase pens: Dry erase pens can be used to keep score either on a dry erase board, or on a laminated version of the score sheet which accompanies this post. If you don’t have any to hand, you can find a range of suitable set of pens here. Digital timer with magnet: If you are only aiming to play What Colour Is That Car? for part of a journey, or if you want to play the speed version, you will find a digital timer very useful. If you don’t have a suitable timer already, you can find a range of digital timers here.For Parents Based In The
USA
About The Author: This post was written by Colin Drysdale, the creator of How To Raise A Happy Genius.
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