Spot licence plates and collect the alphabet in order from A to Z. Each letter must come from a different plate. First player to Z wins, or play cooperatively. The game creates a reason to watch the road and reads every car as a potential score.

How to do it

1"I bet you can't find the letter A on a license plate before I do — go."
2Each player collects A to Z in order using letters spotted on license plates — one letter per car.
3Announce each find aloud: A, on that blue van. No silent hoarding.
4Cooperative version: everyone works together toward a shared A to Z. No rivalry, just the alphabet.

Variations

If they wave it off, start collecting the alphabet yourself out loud — 'ooh, there's a C' — most kids can't resist correcting or joining once they see you're actually doing it without them.
How it ends: fold the stop into arrival — 'we're pulling in, whatever letter we're on is where we pick up next time' turns stopping into a bookmark, not a loss.

💡 Parent tip

Q and X are the hard ones. Warn them that Q will probably come from a company name, not a word. Knowing this prevents the frustration of waiting forever for one letter. This builds sustained attention ahead of time — if things are already heated, use a physical/sensory reset instead, like Palm Drawing (B011-22).