Transportation Themed Activities

TRANSPORTATION SENSORY BIN (SENSORY PLAY)

I like to kick off a theme with something my girls can just dive into and EXPLORE!  This BIN was perfect.  Black-dyed rice (HOW-TO VIDEO) and a few yellow pipe cleaners made up the road and then I used cotton ball clouds to resemble a sky.  I threw in some planes and cars and let the girls at it.  Such a great activity for building vocabulary and interest around a theme.  We chatted about different types of transportation, let the rice run through our fingers, did lots of pretend play, threw cotton balls in the air, and even worked on sorting!  So much can be done with a sensory bin!

SQUISH BAG (SENSORY PLAY)

If you’ve never made a squish bag, what are you waiting for?  Squish bags are great for little ones and super EASY to make.  For this weeks I took a Ziploc bag, poured in a bottle of dollar store hair gel, added some blue food-dye and then threw in some laminated mini boats to create a water sensory bag!  Perfect for all kids, but especially those little ones who still put things in their mouths.  They loved it so much that I just had to make another one so we had two!  This one has little mini eraser rockets!  To tie in some basic skills we counted the rockets then used our bags to work on some prewriting skills by tracing lines and shapes in the bag.

DRIVING SHAPES (MATH)

For this activity, I pulled out my handy-dandy painter’s tape and created some shapes on the floor.  I gave the littlest a few cars and she got to drive them around the shapes.  Simple and FUN!

TRANSPORTATION THEMED BREAKFAST

A piggy driving a waffle car down a blackberry road on a sunny day made for a fun morning!

“T” is for TRANSPORATION (LITERACY)

I pulled out these letter dot pages for a quick morning activity to review the letter “T.”  We chanted “T, /t/, Transportation” then formed the letter using Do-A-Dot markers.  You can find these JUST DAB printables and more HERE!

FREIGHT TRAIN ART (LITERACY/ART)

Have you read Freight Train by Donald Crews?  It’s a great concept book for littles talking about colors and fits perfectly with this theme.  After reading we pulled out our rainbow paints and created sponge painted trains.  For this activity, I cut sponges into small rectangles then had the girls dab each color to create a train car.  We finger painted on the wheels and added a little paint to connect the cars.

RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT (GROSS MOTOR/FINE MOTOR/MATH)

This classic game is great for kids because it has them working on those gross motor skills!  STOP!  GO!  I decided to have the girls make signs to tie in some fine motor skills (cutting), color practice (color words), and counting (1,2,3)!  After creating our signs, we took it outside and PLAYED!

NAME ROCKETS (LITERACY)

Nothing new to see here BUT this activity is one of my favorites!  Cut out a few squares and triangles, write the letters of your child’s name, and have them work to create their name by gluing the squares together in a rocket shape.  A fun way to get in a little name practice and fine motor work.

DRIVING AROUND TOWN (GROSS MOTOR/ PRETEND PLAY)

This activity was inspired by THIS Pinterest pin!  To set it up I pulled out some masking tape and created a road down our hallway.  I added some tunnels (paper and tape) then had the girls use blocks to build houses and stores to place along the road.  They had fun driving their cars around town and stopping to “chat” along the way.

TRANSPORTATION STICKER COUNT (MATH)

For this activity, I rolled out a sheet of art paper then drew a simple scene of water, a road, and the sky.  I gave each of my girls some transportation-themed stickers and we got to sorting.  For my oldest, I wrote numbers all around and had her identify the number, pick which form of transportation (sorting), and then had her count that many stickers to match.  For my youngest, I just gave her the transportation stickers and had her sort them by sticking them in the correct area.  As she did this I asked questions such as “Where does the car go? How many airplanes are in the sky? What color boat  is that?”

TRANSPORTATION ICE BLOCK (SCIENCE)

Fill a container with water.  Add a little food dye for color then toss in cars and planes, and FREEZE!   Once the water is frozen, pop it out on a cookie tray and pair it with a tub of warm water, a few hammers, and small cups.  Ask your littles to FREE the cars and planes.  Talk about the changing of liquids to solids, chat temperature and texture, work on problem-solving skills, and have fun hammering away!

SYLLABLE COUNTING (LITERACY)

For this activity I pulled out our transportation-themed books and then together we picked a vocabulary word, said it out loud, then clapped out the number of syllables in each.  Syllable counting is a foundational skill and helps build an awareness of sounds in words.  Some ideas to practice counting syllables include clapping each syllable, humming the word, or counting jaw drops.

WOW!  What a fun week.  So much learning (and FUN) happened this week.  Are there any activities that you think you’ll try?  See an activity you LOVE?  PIN this post below to save for later!

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