Housewife Eclectic

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Magnetic Building Shapes

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Today I am continuing my electronic free road trip ideas with these fun Magnetic Building Shapes!

 

Building blocks occupy my kids for hour. Between the forts and castles, I can hand them a bucket of blocks and they will have a great afternoon. I began to wish I could bring a box of blocks on our road trip with us because it occupied them for so long. I came up with the next best things, these magnetic building shapes that let your kids build and play, all on a flat surface.

You will need:

  • The printable found here 
  • A laminator and laminating Sheets, I use this one and love it!
  • a binder pouch to keep the shapes in
  • scissors
  • magnet tape for the back of the play mat
  • cookie sheet to play on (I bought mine at the dollar store)

These building shapes take a little more time than my other playmats, but they were well worth the effort, my girls loved them and played with the for hours. Print the printable on a sturdy card stock, and then cut out each individual shape. Laminate the shapes for durability and then cut out again. Add a strip of magnetic tape to the back of each shape. I use magnetic tape because it lays so flat against the play mat.

You can use an old cookie sheet, but I found that the cookie sheets at the dollar store are actually the perfect size to fit on a little kid’s lap. I bought a dollar cookie sheet and then spray painted it turquoise, while the paint was still wet, I threw pink glitter on the cookie sheet. I actually painted this cookie sheet more than 4 years ago and it has held up really well!

My daughter built castles, houses and even roads to run her cars along. This was probably one of her favorite road trip activities. My daughter seriously only watch one movie on our entire way to Disneyland because she had so many other creative options.

You can find my Road Trip Sanity Savers here, My Ocean Play Mat here, My Farm Play Mat here and my Car Play Mat here.

 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. says

    What a great way to inspire creativity. I love the idea of getting rid of electronics. I don't think my kids would mind horribly as long as there were alternative entertainment options like this.

    Reply

  15. says

    I love the look of that cookie sheet. The specks in the blue are so fun. I used to use cookie sheets with magnetic letters in the classroom for word work activities and the kids loved it!

    Reply

  16. says

    What a fun printable! These remind me of tangrams that we used to build shapes with in elementary school – only these are much more convenient! Magnetic so they don't get lost! I know what I'm making all my friends' kids for Christmas!

    Reply

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