Car Maze

How to play this game

Here is a game for children who love a challenge. The goal is to "drive" the car through the maze of streets to reach home base. They will be confronted with barriers, some of which can be opened with keys that are scattered through the town.

There are 25 levels, gradually increasing in difficulty with the completion of each one.

On opening the game the children will see a maze of streets using "birds-eye view", i.e. as if they are above the scene, looking down onto it. The car will always start in the lower right hand corner.

The buttons under the car are:
• Arrow - forward and back. The number next to the arrow indicates the current level (1 to 25). Clicking on the arrow allows movement to any level within the game. This is especially useful when re-entering the game, as children will not have to restart at level 1.
• Music symbol - turns the sound on and off.
• Hand - exit the game.

Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the car around the streets. The aim is to reach the home base indicated by the purple house.

Coloured gates (doors or barriers) will block some roads. To open them, drive to the same coloured key.

Once a level is completed, children will be advanced to the next one. They can, however, choose to go back and forth to any of the levels.

Related Learning Outcomes

Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity

Outcome 4: Children are involved and confident learners

Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators

Developmental skills

Arrow keys on the keyboard

Colour recognition

Observation skills

Logical thinking

Planning

Decision-making

Relative directions - left, right, up and down

Bird's eye view

Persistence

Concentration

Teaching Tips

Teachers can help children by telling them which coloured keys they need or which gate to go to next. Use words such as up, down, left and right. Let them find their way using trial and error.

Children will have lots of fun driving around the town. Don't be too concerned if they spend some time exploring before finding keys and gates.

Mention that what they see is what a bird would see if it were flying above the town. This is called "birds eye view".

Points to note:
• Not all keys belong to a gate
• Not all gates have a corresponding key
• Gates on intersections appear square
• Gates coloured grey cannot be opened
• It is not always necessary to collect all of the keys
• There is always a solution to each level
• There may be other ways of getting to home base other than opening gates

Teachers can help by letting children get as far as they can before giving advice. Use suggestions like:
• "Where do we need to go? Where is the house?"
• "Are there any keys we can collect?"
• "Can we get the blue/red/green key? Why not?"
• "We can't open the grey gates. Can we go around?"
• "OK. We've come to a dead-end. Can we go back and find another way?"

Use words like up, down, left and right. You will be surprised at how quickly children will pick up the directions and be zooming around the town.

Strategy tip

Find the house and work backwards. For example...I need to get through the blue gate to get to the house, but first I must get through the red gate. The red key is not far from the car, so I can get that key straight away.

Another way for children to complete the game is by collecting all the keys first and removing the gates. Then they can move around the maze with fewer obstacles.