Amazing ideas are born from dreams!

The Toyota Dream Car Art Contest encourages and inspires creative expression and imagination, challenging the boundaries of traditional thinking. It’s a chance for tomorrow’s engineers, designers, and creative thinkers to let their imaginations run wild by drawing their ‘Dream Car’.

This year marks the competition’s 16th year, and with that comes a bit of a treat – early bird prizes up for grabs for those who get their entries in by Sunday, 11th December 2022.

The competition opens 7th of November 2022 – find out more below.

Competition Details

To enter, students are required to draw or paint a picture of what they imagine their dream car will look like.

Entries open 7th of November 2022.

Early Bird Prizes – submit entries before the 11th of December 2022 and your students will have an extra chance to win!!!

  • 5 x winners of $100 VISA gift vouchers for entries received before 11th December
  • Winners of early bird prizes are still eligible to win regular prizes

There are three different age categories for the competition:

  • Under 8-years-old
  • 8 to 11-year-olds
  • 12 to 15-year-olds

The top three place-getter winners in each of the age categories will be chosen and one of these lucky students will be selected by the judges as the ‘Australian Dream Car Contest Champion’.

The child who wins first prize in the competition will win a $2,500 VISA Gift Card for their school, and another $2,500 VISA Gift Card for themselves. There are also eight $275 VISA Gift Cards to be won for the other winners across the age categories.

Download the Teacher’s Guide and full Terms and Conditions. The competition closes MONDAY, 20th FEBRUARY 2023. Visit the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest website for more information and to enter.

Frequently Asked Questions

When do students have to get their artwork in?

  • The competition closes at 11:59pm AEDT on the 20th February 2023, so it’s a great school holiday and back-to-school activity.

Do students basically have to be Picasso in order to enter this content?

  • Nope! It’s about creativity, not perfection. Each entry will be individually judged based on its message, uniqueness, and art characteristics.

Do students have to post their artwork to enter? Do I have to post it for them?

  • Nope! This year the Dream Car Competition is accepting entries online, so there is no need to package and post your class entries. Head to dreamcarentry.com.au and follow the bulk upload process. Remember to keep your original artwork in a safe place. You’ll need it in order to be eligible to win the amazing prizes.

Check out some entries from previous years

– we love the creative thinking!

The Toyota Dream Car Art Contest is held for children all over the world to dream, imagine and inspire. Since 2004, Toyota has been inspiring over 6.2 million children from 100 countries to dream.  Toyota encourages students to believe in a dream and the power of imagination, connecting to the world through their dream cars.

Students can use the #toyotadreamcar hashtag to see what students around the world are up to and share their own dream cars. 

Not sure how to get started? keep an eye on our social media to see what is happening in other classrooms.

#toyotadreamcar #studentdreaming #teachingideas #coolaustralia #australianeducation 

Primary Resources

This unit includes a range of lessons that allow teachers to choose the best way to introduce the contest into the class. Teachers can choose to keep the lessons broad, focusing on creative thinking or centre lesson content around environmental or social topics. Lessons culminate in the creation of an artwork that students can choose to enter into the contest. 

Design Your Dream Car
– [email protected]

In this activity, kids get creative and design their very own dream car while exploring the different design elements of a car including movement, fuel, materials, positive impact, look and feel.
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Toyota Dream Car Competition
– Foundation to Year 2

Students explore places that are special to them and think about how they can look after their special place. They explore the different ways that places are special to people and design a dream car that can look after a place that is special to them.
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Caring for our Favourite Places
– Foundation to Year 2

Develop communication, creative thinking and problem solving skills by explores students sense of place and and environment.
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Toyota Dream Car Competition
– Years 3 to 6

Students examine the winners of last year’s Contest, and evaluate the messages and visual conventions. Students then work as a class to brainstorm some ideas for their own dream cars, then working independently to create their own.
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Exploring Natural Resources
– Years 3 to 4

Students will explore what is meant by the term ‘natural resources’. They will investigate why we need these resources and how we can use fewer resources. Students will design a dream car that looks after natural resources both now and in the future.
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Illustrating a story
– Years 3 to 4

Students read and analyse The Lorax by Dr Seuss, focusing on how the Lorax was trying to protect his local environment. Students then illustrate their dream car, identifying the visual representations used in The Lorax.
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Dream Car Adaptations
– Years 5 to 6

Students begin by thinking about how humans differ to animals in how they cope with extreme environments. They then investigate different types of adaptations, including physical and behavioural adaptations.
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A Dream Car for A Dream Job
– Years 5 to 6

Students investigate what work is and some of the different jobs that people have. Students then think about the type of work they’d do in the future. They then create a dream car to help them with their dream job.
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Secondary Resources

This unit includes a range of lessons that allow teachers to choose the best way to introduce the contest into the class. Teachers can choose to keep the lessons broad, focusing on creative thinking or centre lesson content around environmental or social topics. Lessons culminate in the creation of an artwork which students can choose to enter into the contest. 

Toyota Dream Car Competition
– Years 7 to 10

Explore the concept of dreams and aspiration with students by examining previous winners and analysing their artistic messages. 
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Using Resources Sustainably
– Years 7 to 8

Review sustainability, investigate natural resources and how we use them before designing a dream car that can help people use resources more sustainably.
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One Dream Car in the Style of Another – Years 7 to 8

Analyse and compare the visual representations of favourite artworks, identify a message and create a dream car artwork that incorporates this message.
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Using Biomimicry to Design a Dream Car – Years 7 to 8

Investigate biomimicry as a design principle and design a dream car that incorporates features inspired by nature.
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Dream Car with a message
– Years 9 to 10

Students think about whether artists have a responsibility to communicate important messages, and then identify a message that is important to them. They then design and create a dream car artwork that conveys the message of their choosing.
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With thanks to our Partners

These lessons have been made in partnership with Toyota.

 

©2022 Gemba Group and Cool Australia.