In less than 3 weeks, my family will be heading out on a road trip to Virginia Beach! Dylan, Lexie and Lily go back to school one month from today, so it will (sadly) be our grand finale for Summer Break. I'm already preparing for our trip, so I wanted to share one of our favorite road trip ideas with all of you: a DIY Chalkboard Cookie Sheet Travel Activity Tray!
I made these simple travel activity trays for my crew a few years ago, and they were a hit! They stay in our SUV year round. I originally shared the idea on my blog two years ago, but I figured I would expand on the idea, because it was just briefly featured in my simple road trip ideas for kids post. It's still one of my most popular pins on Pinterest, and gets re-pinned daily from my travel board!
DIY $2 CHALKBOARD COOKIE SHEET
TRAVEL ACTIVITY TRAY
These activity trays are simple and inexpensive to make, are perfect for kids ages 1-10, and can be slid under the seats for easy storage!
SUPPLIES:
- Cookie Sheet ($1 at Walmart or a dollar store)
- Chalkboard Spray Paint (1 can will easily cover 4+ cookie sheets)
DIRECTIONS:
- Thoroughly spray one side of the cookie sheet with chalkboard spray paint. Dry 3-4 hours.
- Thoroughly spray the other side of the cookie sheet and dry 3-4 hours.
- Repeat on both sides.
- DONE!!!
PLAY SUPPLIES:
- 1 box of chalk
- 1 box of crayons
- Travel Soap Box to hold the crayons
- Mini Chalkboard Eraser
- Coloring pages
- Magnetic clip to hold the paper in place (2 pack for $1 at the Target Dollar Spot)
- Cars
- Magnetic letters and numbers
- Storage bag to hold the letters
- Magnets
PLAY IDEAS:
{Letter Matching}
Write the uppercase letters on the travel chalkboard activity tray, and have your child place the matching lowercase magnetic letters onto the uppercase letters. This activity really helped Lily learn to recognize all of her letters, and now I'm doing the same thing with Liam!
{Counting & Number Recognition}
Draw 10 squares on the activity tray then draw counters (large dots) for each number inside each box. Have your child count the number of counters inside each square, then place the correct number on top of the box.
{Simple Chalkboard Play}
Draw a picture, play hangman or play tic tac toe!
{Magnetic Play}
Playing with magnets is fun and mess-free! (We love our Shape Mags for this! They are perfect for Liam!)
{Roads & Tracks}
Grab the chalk, draw a road and some parking spots OR train tracks, then play using toy cars and mini trains!
{Coloring}
Print out some coloring pages, clip a page to the activity tray using a magnetic clip, and color away! We love to store our crayons in travel soap boxes, because the cardboard box always gets crushed and the crayons break easier. (This is a great Back To School tip, too. Add it to your school supply list!)
A small, plastic, suction cup bath caddy suctioned to the window is perfect for holding crayons, markers and other small toys and supplies on road trips!
STORAGE:
When my kids are done playing, I simply place everything into a gallon storage bag, zip it up, clip the bag to the travel activity tray using the magnetic clip, and slide it under the seat!
These simple DIY $2 Chalkboard Cookie Sheet Travel Activity Trays get used several times a week. Not only are they perfect for road trips, but they are great for keeping my kids busy while running errands. I bought some new activity tray supplies for our upcoming family vacation, so they are already organized and ready to go!
What activities would you do with these trays?
You might also like:The Road Trip Survival Kit Caddy for Kids

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This is awesome!! I love it so much. So many different things you can do with it.
ReplyDeleteYou are the queen of car activities. LOVE this sweet and simple board. My girls would really enjoy them in or out of the car!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea!! These would be perfect for a road trip!
ReplyDeleteI've thought to spray paint the cookie sheet before. We use this trick often for road trips but never as a chalkboard. Such a clever idea.
ReplyDeleteI totally made these once and one of the trays I used turned out not to be magnetic! So annoying, lol!
ReplyDeleteEEEK...this is so cute and such a clever idea! I'm heading out on Sunday for 17 hrs in a car with a toddler! Saving this!
ReplyDeleteThey turned out great ! Love the idea of using a soap box for the crayons !
ReplyDeletehow cool is this?!
ReplyDeletei hope you have so much fun while at VA beach!
these would be an excellent tool in the classroom as well!
You are so darn creative! I need to make one of these for Parker. Poor kid just has to sit there and listen to me sing while we drive. lol
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! I need to try this out..think my older two kids would love it (hopefully keep them busy and less fighting 😉)
ReplyDeleteThis is so great!! Thank you for this idea!!
ReplyDeleteWe just got back from a road trip and did the cookie sheet idea!! I didn't think to use chalkboard paint though! That's brilliant!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this idea so much! This would be perfect for my toddler and preschooler...especially for those long trips when they start to get antsy.
ReplyDeleteI love this idea! We take a lot of road trips and my son would love this!!
ReplyDeleteI love this craft! My sister made one and LOVED it!
ReplyDelete