If your kids are obsessed with anything that has wheels, this reading game is going to be an instant hit. The Remote Control Car Sight Word Activity turns a typical backyard toy into a literacy tool on wheels. Think sight words meet race car rally—and yes, it’s just as fun as it sounds.
Perfect for preschoolers, kindergarteners, and early readers, this summer reading activity is all about movement, laughter, and sneaky learning. If you’re looking for a way to shake up your usual flashcard routine, this is it.
Why You’ll Love This Summer Reading Activity
- Combines play and learning in a way that feels like pure fun (no pressure, no worksheets!).
- Super engaging for energetic kids who’d rather zoom than sit.
- You can play indoors or outside with just a few easy supplies.
- Totally customizable for all levels of early literacy—just switch up the words!
Materials You’ll Need
- Remote control car (any size works!)
- Pilons, cones, or plastic cups
- Paper
- Black marker
- Packing tape
How to Set It Up
- Write Your Sight Words:
Choose a handful of sight words or early reading words and write one on each sheet of paper. Use large, bold letters so your child can read them easily from a short distance.
- Attach Words to Pilons or Cones:
Use packing tape to secure each paper to a cone or cup. Spread the cones out around your play area like a mini racetrack. - Create Your Course:
Set up a path for the remote control car to follow—zigzagging, looping, or spaced out randomly for extra challenge. Make sure there’s enough space for the car to move between the cones without knocking them over. Or you can make knocking them over the goal of the game!
How to Play
- Call out a word and have your child drive the remote control car to that cone.
- Once they reach it, they must read the word out loud before moving on.
- You can also challenge them by calling out a clue (like a rhyme or beginning letter) instead of the word itself.
- For extra fun, create a finish line and time their laps!
Fun Game Variations
1. Sight Word Scavenger Hunt
Call out a word and have your child find it by driving the car around the course.
2. Build-a-Sentence
Place cones in a specific order with words that build a simple sentence. Your child drives to each cone and reads the words in order to complete the sentence.
3. Word Match-Up
Place words on cones and the matching pictures on separate ones. Your child drives the car between the word and the picture it belongs to.
4. Spelling Challenge
Call out a word and have your child drive to each cone that contains a letter in that word (in order!).
Tips for Success
- Use paper that’s heavy enough not to crumple outdoors—cardstock works great.
- Don’t have cones? Use plastic cups, small boxes, or even toys.
- Play on a smooth surface like pavement, wood floors, or tile for the best car control.
- Let your child decorate the track or add mini road signs for extra ownership and fun.
The Remote Control Car Sight Word Activity is a genius way to blend learning with play—and it just might be your new favorite summer literacy game. It encourages letter recognition, reading fluency, and problem-solving, all while kids are actively engaged and giggling.
Whether your child is a budding reader or still learning letter sounds, this game makes reading feel less like a chore and more like a race-day event. So grab a remote control car, scatter some cones, and get ready to zoom through some words together!
Play2Learn Toddler & Preschool Programs for Curious Toddlers
There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!
But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.
Play2Learn for Toddlers includes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.
Play2Learn Preschool which includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years. That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!
These toddler and preschool lesson plans and activities will definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!
Click here for more information: Play2Learn
Book: Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids
Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.
Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book: Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids
Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.
Find out more and grab your copy here.
Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.
Book: Big Book of Riddles for Kids
Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast? The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles tha. t show them how to think outside the box.
- 350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
- Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
- Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.
Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!
Designed for kids ages 6 years old and up.
TV Show: Curious Crafting
I’m so excited to share my crafting TV show Curious Crafting which launched in July 2022 on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube! Season 2 aired in August 2023! My show was also nominated in 2023 for Best Live Action Preschool Series by the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence.
Curious Crafting Season 1 is also now airing in Australia on ABC! Watch it here!
Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.
In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.
Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.
This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.
