Transportation

Dramatic Play

Week 1, was a rocket ship. The kids dressed up in space suits, and a Miles from Tomorrowland suit, and blasted off into space! They also used rocket packs to explore space. They had fun counting down, blasting off, and searching for aliens in space.




Week 2, was an airport. I made a cardboard plane for the outside, then had all the chairs lined up inside. I used a broken laptop for the pilot's controls. I added some broken phones and headphones as well. There was also a tray of snacks on the plane, for the flight attendants to hand out. The ticket counter had a phone and cash register, plus a world map and airline tickets. There was a waiting area, suitcases, purses, and a carseat and baby too. We couldn't leave out air traffic control, so I added our construction vest and "light sticks" made from paper towel rolls, so our pilot knew when to take off and land. We had so much fun playing, and all the roles were filled. We flew to fun places like Canada, Australia, Virginia, Zootopia, and Pizza World.

 

 
 

Blocks

Construction Site
My boy has been waiting all year to get all of his tractors out and have them downstairs. I had planned on it only being 1 day, but it stayed out 2 since they liked it so much!


The second week, the airport spilled into the block area, so the blocks areas spilled into the small manipulative areas, with the car rug and airport toys.


Art

We painted with cars.
 
We painted wooden vehicles. I forgot to get a picture! They came from Wal Mart and the kids got to choose from airplanes, shuttles, cars, buses, or helicopters. I was relieved they all found something they liked, and there were no hurt feelings!

We played with vehicle file folder games, since blocks spilled into small manipulatives, and our chairs were gone from art for the airport.

We drove cars in shaving cream. This worked perfectly for a day we didn't have chairs around the table. The ran around and around the table, driving their cars and making tracks.

Small Manipulatives

We had a felt mat with construction and emergency vehicles.

Thomas the train matching game
 
The Little Engine that Could felt board story
 
ABC trains

Puzzles: construction site, neighborhood, fire engine, outer space.

Vehicle shadow matching folder games.

Writing

Stamps made from transportation stickers on milk lids

Glow in the dark space stickers


Transportation stickers

Snack

Graham cracker traffic lights
 
Banana airplanes
 
Outside
I made cars from diaper boxes. I forgot pics again. They're just spray painted, and have wheels on the sides. Then elastic shoulder straps. They discovered these were perfect for playing Rescue Bots and Transformers, because they could go inside to "transform," then get out and run around to be a robot.

We also had a few rainy, inside days where we played parachute.

Large Group

Day 1, we read Go Dogs Go and talked about different forms of transportation. We played an ABC matching game. I used cards with different types of trucks and cars, and they had capital or small letters written on them. This was a great practice, since during dinosaur week, we had matched the letter dinosaurs, and the letter eggs. We reviewed the matching letters, then they each got a card with a letter on it and had to find their partner with their matching letter (capital or small). They had a lot of fun and while I thought we'd only go through half of the alphabet that day, they wanted to keep going, and we went through it all!

Day 2, we worked on beginning sounds, and found the beginning sounds of different vehicles. Then we sorted them by the letter they started with.

Day 3, we read about airplanes, then decorated and put together our own styrofoam airplanes. They flew them around the room while they waited for their friends to finish, then we took them outside to fly.

Day 4, we read about boats, then made foil boats. We put them in water, and tried to see how many Fisher Price little people we could stack on them until they sunk. Afterwards, we talked about the features of the boats who held the most without sinking, and they got to make more. Instead of taking turns and going one at a time, they were able to just build and test their boats as they were ready. They really like this activity! I was impressed by how little help they needed.

Small Group

Week 1, Miss Kim was gone, so we just worked together as a whole group to do a transportation sorting worksheet. This is one of the only times you'll see me mention a worksheet! I just never use them. I liked that this one gave them good cutting practice, and then they sorted the vehicles by where they go: land, air or water.

Week 2, Miss Kim's group worked on letter recognition. I had a box lid with a parking lot drawn with a letter in each spot. They chose a letter card, then had to drive their car to the spot with the matching letter. They also worked on tracing their names.

My group practiced patterns with different vehicles. They are great at extending patterns, and some are making their own.