🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🌿 Sensory Exploration — Handling varied craft materials — soft fabric, rough sandpaper, smooth clay, scratchy burlap — builds sensory discrimination and supports the processing skills that some children need additional practice with.
• 🏆 Pride & Accomplishment — Completing a craft and displaying or giving it away gives children a concrete experience of accomplishment — building the relationship between effort, completion, and pride that motivates future creative risk-taking.
• ♻️ Environmental Thinking — Using natural or recycled materials in crafts begins to develop awareness that materials have a life beyond their original use — an early foundation for environmental stewardship and sustainable thinking.
• 👁️ Hand-Eye Coordination — Guiding scissors along a line, placing stickers exactly, and painting within a space all require the visual-motor integration that handwriting, sports, and detailed work depend on.

 Materials you will Need

How to Make It

Step 1:
Fold in the top of the milk carton to make the top flat and tape it in place with the masking tape. Your preschooler may need adult help with this.

Step 2:
Wrap the construction paper around the four sides of the carton. Trim the paper to fit and glue it onto the carton. Secure with the masking tape so it will stay in place as it dries.

Step 3:
Lay the milk carton on its side and decide where the top, bottom, front, and sides will be.

Step 4:
Parent step; about ¾ of the length of the carton from the front, cut a rectangular hole it what will be the top of the car. This is where any action figure etc. that your child would like to play with can sit.

Step 5:
Have your preschooler color the car green and white, Racer Steve’s racer outfit colors. Don’t forget to have him/her put a number on the hood and where the doors would be.

Step 6:
Parent step; trace and cut out eight 2-inch circles from corrugated cardboard. This can be a used box or you can buy cake board from a craft store. Make a hole big enough for the straws to go through in each circle.

Step 7:
Have your preschooler color one side only of each cardboard circle black.

Step 8:
Have your preschooler make 4 wheels by gluing the uncolored sides to the circles together in pairs.

Step 9:
Parent step; make four holes in the car where the axle for the wheels should go. Be sure they are directly lined up so the wheels will be straight. 

Step 10:
Trim straws so they are about an inch longer than the carton is wide. 

Step 11:
Put one wheel on the end of one straw.

Make it More Challenging

Helpful Tips for Parents

Tip 1:
You can add a string to the front so your preschool can pull the car along instead of push it.

Tip 2:
You can buy ready-made dowels and wheels if you feel it will be easier.

Tip 3:
To be sure that the milk carton is very sanitary, wash it with soap and water as soon as it becomes empty then rinse it with water and a little bleach, then rinse it again and leave it open to dry completely before use. 

More Racer Steve Activities

Have a Princess Katie and Racer Steve Party!
Preschooler's love to dance and move to strong rhythms. Create a Princess Katie and Racer Steve Party and rock the house!

Royal Races Invitation
Every year racers race around all the castles and woods in Happyville Kingdom. Invite your preschool princesses and racers to come enjoy the festivities.

 

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My name is Shannon McMath and I am the Crafts writer at PreschoolRock.com. I live in California with my husband, Steve, and my daughter, Emily. Crafting is a passion of mine and I love to pass on the joy to preschoolers. Sharing quality time with your preschooler creating crafts will not only help him/her develop fine motor skills and creativity, it will create memories that will last a life time! If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments feel free to contact me. Thanks!

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