Roads roads and more roads!

I have a few boys in one of my morning classrooms that LOVE cars. For the past 2 or 3 weeks they have spent their free play time building complex roads with the blocks. They bring in their own matchbox cars to supplement the ones we have here (because the 15-20 we have are just not enough). So, when I was doing my order, I saw this item and decided now was the time to get it. I had seen it before and thought it was totally cool, but I didn't really have anyone who would absolutely love it as much as me. Plus, I had been watching them create ramps (short and long) across the classroom and knew that this would help in exploring these creations. So, I put it in the classroom yesterday before any of the children arrived. They immediately were drawn to it and had no problem at all assembling the pieces. I thought they might have a problem at first in connecting the pieces; but they needed no help at all! These pieces fit very easily together, and their size allows for them to easily create turns, ramps, bridges, and anything else they dream up. The set also comes with two battery powered cars; they just turn them on and the cars stay on the road! They liked using those cars because they were a novelty, but soon they were using all the matchbox cars, too. The picture doesn't show this item any justice. Those color sections are actually a bunch of individual pieces already put together. So, in reality you can also take patterning into the block area with a child who just doesn't care about math play yet. You can use these pieces to make a pattern in the road. Since the way these pieces connect allows for the connection to turn and bend in all directions, it's easy to incorporate the blocks in making bridges and hills; however the set does come with 4 ramps to place under the road to make a hill. There are seemingly endless possibilities with this item! The only thing it doesn't have is the ability to make a fork in the road (you know, the road could go left or right) or make corners (intersections); but I don't think that has bothered them yet!