Transportation Books

For this unit, we used a combination of books that we already had and some new ones from the library.

These two were definitely the favorites, especially The Truck Book.

The Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race is a new favorite from the library.

Of course, we had to include our Thomas books.

Any transportation unit wouldn't be complete without some Donald Crews books. Trip especially liked Freight Train and School Bus.

Printable Transportation Games and Playdough Mats

For our transportation unit, I again turned to 1+1+1=1 for some great printables. This page has lots of transportation activities and games for several age and ability levels.

I chose several games from the Transportation Preschool Pack:

the shadow matching cards,

the school bus size sequencing,

and the three-part puzzles.

I also created some playdough mats of my own.

Trip enjoyed loading the train and the truck with freight.

He liked backing the truck up (complete with beeping) to pick up the heavy loads.

The train cars got loaded,

then it went chugging across the table.

You can download and print these playdough mats for your own personal use. The train is here and the truck is here. They are black and white so you or your child can color them yourselves. 

Vehicle Sorting

We haven't done too many sorting activities, so I decided to do one that would go with our transportation theme. I was amazed at how easily Trip handled this task.

I used sidewalk chalk on the driveway to make some categories of where vehicles travel. I chose tracks, air (which I later changed to sky because that made more sense to Trip), road, water, and dirt. I also made a category called Cars Movie since Trip has several Cars characters, but he didn't like having those cars separate from the other vehicles that travel on roads, so we didn't really use it.

I showed Trip the different categories, then we started sorting his vehicles.

Once we were done sorting, Trip carefully lined up all of the cars on the road.

Transportation Cookie Painting

I recently watched an episode of The Pioneer Woman cooking show on Food Network. She was making some super cute hand cookies with her daughter and her daughter's friends. They rolled out sugar cookie dough, traced their hands with a butter knife and then decorated the cookies with a colored egg glaze. I hadn't thought of painting sugar cookies before baking them but had a feeling that Trip would enjoy trying it. He got some transportation cookie cutters for his birthday (thanks Aunt T!), so it was time to put them to work.

I made the dough, refrigerated it, rolled it out, and cut out some shapes. I decided to put them on parchment paper since I wasn't sure how much of a mess Trip would make with the egg glaze.

The egg glaze is simply egg yolks, water, and food coloring.

I didn't have any paintbrushes that I knew were food safe, so we used q-tips. They were not the best, but they worked in a pinch.

Trip enjoyed choosing colors and decorating his cookies.

He also liked using the q-tip to poke holes in the dough.

Once he was done painting, I let him add some sprinkles. After that, he didn't want to paint anymore, he just wanted to use the sprinkles.

They turned out pretty cute and tasted great too. Next time, I will probably make the icing too to add a little more sweetness, but no one complained about the cookies being plain.

Artistic Transporttion Bath

I purchased some vehicle-shaped sponges at the dollar store for our transportation theme and had no idea how much Trip would like them. When we first got them out, he carried them around and played with them. Then, they made a nice addition to our sensory tub and they have also been fun in the bathtub. I thought Trip might enjoy using them to make prints on the tub walls, so I mixed up some bath paint of shaving cream and washable finger paints.

I showed him how to dip the sponge in the paint and stick it on the wall. He got right to work but really disliked having to wring out the sponge before sticking it in the paint.

Soon, the tub wall was filled with lots of colors and vehicle shapes.

We made some shaving cream clouds for the helicopter and airplane (which I cut out of a foam sheet).

Trip had a great time with this bath! When he was done painting, we started taking handfuls of the colored shaving cream and playing with it. We shook hands with it, enjoyed its silky texture, put globs of it on the tub wall, and made a big mess that easily washed down the drain when we were done.

Transportation Sensory Tub

I'm always glad to see how much Trip enjoys the sensory tubs that I make for him. Whether they're simple like this one, or more elaborate, he just loves playing with them.  This time, Trip and I dumped bags of brown rice in a couple of containers, added some cars, trucks, planes, etc., and got right to playing.

I also gave Trip an empty parmesan cheese shaker to move rice from one container to the other.

He really enjoyed pouring the rice. 

He also had a fun time reenacting scenes from Cars 2. Here, Mater is towing Lightning McQueen who is saying, "Yes Mater, you are the bomb!"

Lightning McQueen and Mater also introduced themselves to the monster trucks and had a conversation. :) This stage of imaginary play is really fun to watch!

Waffle Boat Breakfast

I hadn't made Trip waffles in a while, so I figured it was high time and decided that they would make a fun boat.

Some banana slices and some blueberries that we picked last week added a little color. The mast and T are dried mango. As soon as I put this down in front of Trip, he had the fruit eaten in a flash and then he moved on to the waffle. I'm always impressed at how well he eats when I make him special meals. There is rarely much left.

Cars with Milk Lid Wheels

I came upon these cute cars on Pinterest and thought Trip would like them. I have a collection of milk jug lids going for just this sort of thing, so I gathered a few and cut out some cardboard cars. I put a couple of glue dots on each car, then Trip got to stick on the lid wheels. He didn't want me to take a picture of him working. Instead, he took this picture for me. :)

Once the cars had wheels, we started adding letter stickers. I had intended for Trip to put his name on his car, but he wanted to choose other letters. He came up with T, O, and E. I chose to put a Q on the other car.

 After quickly showing off his cars so I could take a picture, he was off to play with them.

Stoplight Game and Craft

Although we don't have a stoplight in our town and the nearest one is at least 60 miles away, Trip is quite fond of them and likes to tell us when to stop and when to go.

I saw a cute stoplight beanbag toss on I Can Teach My Child and decided to come up with one of my own. I cut out circles of the appropriate colors and glued them on two pieces of black paper. The yellow circle is half on one paper and half on the other. I then laminated them and taped them together. I also got out some of the beanbags that I had made during B week last fall.

Trip had fun tossing the beanbags, but also really enjoyed just running and jumping over the stoplight. That kept him busy for quite a while as Lightning McQueen looked on.

After all that jumping, it was time for a rest.

Trip was quite happy when he saw the snack that went with our stoplight fun. I used half of a hotdog bun, some Nutella, and three peanut M&Ms.

Car Wash!

After painting with cars, we needed to clean them, so I filled up the water table with soapy water, a sponge, and an old toothbrush. Trip collected the painted cars as well as some others and got right to work.

The sponge was his favorite cleaning tool and he was quite meticulous.

He liked to make the cars splash in the soapy water.

His concentration was only momentarily broken by the sound of a plane.

"Look, Mommy, a plane!"

Then, it was right back to work, this time to give the cars a shower.