DIY: Road Safety Signs for Outdoor Play

The other day a friend asked where she could buy road signs for her children to play with outside. They're available in many online stores, but I thought we'd have a go at making our own. So with some recycled cereal packets & cardboard tubes we came up with these. 

We started by turning the cereal packets inside out, & painting them & the cardboard tubes black. We found these tubes in our garage, but I'm sure carpet stores or printers will have these regularly to give away.

Minnie painted on more recycled card, with red, green, & orange paint. Once dry we cut these into circles for our traffic lights.

We stuck the cereal box together using double sided tape. This held ok, but I think we would've got a neater finish if we had sealed the box before we painted it.

Before we stuck down the base we stuffed some newspaper inside to help prevent the box from moving around too much when it was placed on the tube. Once sealed we cut a hole big enough to insert the tube in the base.

To hold the tube upright we pushed a garden cane into the ground & then placed our cardboard tube over the top. (To use these signs on a concrete surface I guess you could use a recycled box filled with gravel & newspaper to help keep the pole sturdy.)

We placed our painted box onto the top of tube & added three sticky Velcro squares (we used these sticky hook & loop pads). To cover up the white Velcro I simply coloured over the top with a permanent marker.

We added the corresponding sticky pads to our coloured circles & our traffic lights were ready for action!

To keep the lights (circles) safe when not in use, I cut a plastic poly pocket in half, folded it over & stuck it to the back of the box. This was at Minnie's height making it easily accessible.

The Velcro patches enabled Minnie to control the traffic lights independently, & add or remove them as she pleased. Using these she was able to explore the colour, order & sequence of the lights.

She clearly knew what traffic lights were for, telling me "red means stop, amber means getting ready, green means you go, go, GO!"

To create our road signs I printed off a selection of signs we found on the Internet & laminated each of them. I added a patch of Velcro to the back of each sign so they could be attached to a box, in the same way as the traffic lights.

These have been fun to explore & sparked much imaginative play, & have been a useful way to introduce road safety.

We added sticky Velcro to one of the painted tubes which created another neat sign post.

These inexpensive signs have been played with every day since we made them... & they're still standing! As this has proven so popular we're in the process of making a safety crossing... watch this space! :-)

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Learning Laboratory, Tuesday Tots, Kids Get Crafty, It's Playtime! Kids Co-op, Living Life Intentionally, Outdoor Play Party