Transportation Theme – PreKinders

Pre-K & Preschool theme ideas for learning about transportation

Transportation Theme Unit: Activities for Preschool, Pre-K

Find more Transportation Activities for Pre-K

Books

Transportation Books for Pre-K

Click here for a complete list of Books about Transportation!

Train Activities

Name Trains

{Literacy}
Children glue squares with the letters of their name onto a strip of construction paper to make a name “train”. We add a paper engine and draw on the wheels.

Train Name

Scissor Skills

{Fine Motor Skills}
Children pretend the scissors are a train, cutting along the railroad tracks (straight, curved & jagged lines). They stop when they come to the animal sticker.

Cutting Skills

Train Patterns

{Math}
Children work in pairs, each choosing one color of the Unifix cubes to work with. The children make an AB pattern: one child adding one color and the other adding the next color, taking turns adding to the train.

train patterns

Airplane Activities

Jet Pilot

{Large Motor}
Children fly around the room when their first initial is called.

Craft Stick Airplanes

{Art}
Children use craft sticks and colored masking tape to create airplanes.

Craft Stick Plane Craft Stick Airplane

Airplane Counting

{Math}
Each month, we kept track of how many airplanes flew over our playground while we were outside. Whenever the children saw airplanes outside, we would keep a count in our heads (usually no more than 3 flew over). Then when we went inside, we would add that many airplanes to our chart. The children were often spotted at the chart counting how many we had seen so far.

Airplane CountingAirplane Counting

Parachutes

{Science}
Make parachutes with a 14-inch (approx.) square from a plastic trash bag, tape a 16-inch (approx.) string to each corner with masking tape, and tie all four pieces of string to a 3/4-inch metal washer. This is not easy for children to do. You could make this with each child, or send home the materials and directions for a home activity. Either way children will need individual help. I also made a larger parachute using a whole trash bag tied on four sides to a stuffed animal. The kids had fun dropping this from the classroom loft. (Children are exploring properties of air.)

parachute

Car and Truck Activities

Red Light, Green Light

{Large Motor}
When green light is on, children roll a car around on the floor. When they see the red light, the cars should stop.

Tire Tracks

{Art}
Children dip the tires of toy cars in paint and roll it across their paper to make tire tracks. Oriental Trading also has some car stamps that can be used for this activity. (Item number IN-56/2906)

Truck Track Prints

Play Dough Tire Tracks

{Fine Motor Skills}
Children flatten out play dough and roll toy cars and trucks on it to make tire tracks.

Tire Tracks

Letter Roads

{Literacy}
We use large foam letters (ours came from Lakeshore). Children drive over the shapes of the letters with mini toy cars.

Letter Roads

Ramps & Cars

{Math}
The children bring a small car or truck to school for this experiment. We test the cars to see how well they roll on a ramp covered with various materials. We used aluminum foil, sandpaper, bubble wrap, and corrugated paper. Also, change the height of the ramp and test it again.

Ramp Ramp

Traffic Light Cookies

{Cooking}
Children mix red, green and yellow food coloring with white icing, and spread the icing onto the three vanilla wafers to make a traffic light.

Traffic Light Snack

Truck Bingo Stamping Game

{Math or Literacy}
Read about and print the Truck Bingo Game here.

Truck Bingo Game

More Activities

Story Retelling

{Literacy}
This is an activity that goes with any theme. Choose a book that goes with the theme, and have the children retell the story.
Read the blog post here for details: story retelling

Transportation Graph

{Math}
I used the transportation clipart pictures (available in the Printables section) to place in the top of the pocket chart graph. Children choose their favorite mode of transportation and placed their name card under it on the graph.

Transportation Graph

Wheels Grid Game

{Math}
Read about about print here: Grid Games

Transportation Grid Game

Wheels on the Bus Song Book

This song book for Wheels on the Bus can be printed or projected as a slideshow. Go to the Song Books page to download.

Wheels on the Bus song book

Science Center

{Science}
Ramps with toy cars
Parachute man
Gears
Wood or foam airplane gliders

Travel Prop Box

{Dramatic Play}
Suitcase, Travel books, Tickets, Money, Maps, Clothes, Grooming items, Pajamas

Rhymes

Songs

Classical Music:

Find more Transportation Activities for Pre-K

Links

Resources

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