Have a bit of a competitive streak in you want to show friends and family you’re the fastest with a toy car? Learn how you can transform foam noodles into your very own Talladega Superspeedway. Look below to discover how to create racing tracks with pool noodles.
Building a Speedway
Creating racetracks out of pool noodles gives your kids a fun and inventive way to pit toy cars against each other. This activity is fun for kids from preschool age and above. Here’s what you need:
- Pool noodle
- Colored duct tape
- Two toy cars (like Hot Wheels)
- Wooden skewers
Begin by splitting the pool noodle lengthwise using scissors or a utility knife. Next, use duct tape to secure the two halves together. Black and white checkered duct tape works great for the racing theme, but any color would do.
Add final additions to your track, like taping DIY start and finish signs on wooden skewers and inserting them at each end. Finally, race two toy vehicles along the path to see which can go the fastest.
How To Get Most Out of DIY Track
Part of the fun is figuring out all the unusual ways you can prop up your DIY foam racetracks. For example, you can try propping one end up on a bed or couch to give it an elevated position and watch the cars zoom downward.
You can also add more cut-in-half noodles to each side with tape to add more cars to the action. You and your kids will have a lot of fun figuring out different combinations and obstacles to throw into the mix.
Create Your Own Marble Run
You may have seen those wildly popular videos featuring loads of marbles competing in their very own Olympic-style race. Whenever you’re ready to up the challenge of your racetrack, you can try to come up with creative Rube Goldberg machines using different segments of pool noodles.
All you need to do is cut the noodles in half, like you did with the racetrack, except you then cut them into smaller pieces around six inches in length. Create at least a dozen pieces to give yourself a lot of room to experiment with. Before you position the noodle pieces against the wall, apply the tape to them.
Ensure the tape piece completely covers the bottom of the pool noodle, then attach it to the wall and form ramps from the top down. Finally, drop marbles onto the noodles and see whether they can safely reach the ground.
Honor Trading Company is your one-stop-shop for red foam pool noodles that create radiant and adventurous courses kids love, along with many other fantastic colors and products. We hope you have a lot of fun creating racing tracks with pool noodles along with your friends and family. Feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.