V is for Vehicles

      

• We love books! … Read some of your favorite truck, car, and vehicle books!

• Oatmeal Construction Site … make this messy sensory bin from Snails and Puppy Dog Tails to drive all sorts of vehicles in.
  1. In a shallow tub, mix water with oatmeal. Just experiment with the combination. More water will make the oatmeal mixture gooier.
  2. Add several construction vehicles. This little set of vehicles is perfect!
  3. If you really don’t want to make an oatmeal mess, just use playdoh.

• Letter V Road … we started with one V, then ended up with roads all over the floor. Very fun and super easy to clean up!
  1. Make a large V on the floor with masking tape (I found this wide tape at Home Depot in the paint section). Add more roadways!
  1. NOTE: Be sure to use a painters-type masking tape that is meant to remove easily!
  2. Use a sharpie to draw dashes on the road.
  3. Drive your vehicles along the roads.
  4. TIP: I’ll tell you about two of our favorite toys for the cars … only because as soon as we taped down the roads, my kids grabbed these to add to the set-up (you can see them in the picture above). They are kid-tested favorites around here…

Hot Wheels 4-Lane Elimination  Race Playset	Tonka Wheel Pals Triple Track Tower
My 4-year-old got this for his birthday in November and it has been played with almost daily by all three of my kids. The kids put four cars at the start, pull the trigger and depending on which car is faster, three of them get knocked off by the little spring doors. What I love: It’s durable (daily play with no broken parts!) It is compact and folds up nicely when we clean up. The kids are totally intrigued with it. They race all of their cars, all the time and the outcome is always different. No batteries needed. We got it at Target for about $15	This was a Christmas gift from Grandma several years ago. This is better for younger kids, but my older boys will still play with it. They put three cars at the “starting line” then push the button at the bottom to race all three. They love it. What I love: It’s durable (had it for 3 years with no broken parts!) Easy enough to assemble that we usually take it apart to store. There is a little storage “parking spot” on the back to keep the cars. Simple. My 2-year-old can it herself. On/Off Switch. This one does make a little racing noise, but you can turn it off or my kids even play with it without the noise. It’s not obnoxious

 

• I Spy Vehicles Game
  1. Make a simple I Spy Vehicles game. Use the one above, or create your own with clipart from Microsoft Clipart. I included a blank page if that’s helpful in any way.
  2. Look out your front window, go to a park or even better go to your favorite ice cream shop (and sit at a table next to a big window).
  3. Observe all of the vehicles passing by.
  4. Check off the vehicles you see while you are spying.
• Vehicle Bingo
  1. Use the same I Spy pages above.
  2. Print and cut apart an extra page & play bingo!

• Vehicle Colors … I just added this simplified page because you could use it several different way:
  1. I Spy Colors!
     • Use it as a simple I Spy board for younger kids.
     • Have them spy any vehicle and name it’s color.
     • Then color in one car the matching color with a crayon.
  2. Color Dice Game
     • Use a dice with a different color on each side … like the ones above.
     • Roll the dice & name the color.
     • Color in one of the cars the matching color.

• Vehicle Puzzles … My kids love pulling the puzzles out. The great thing about these chunky puzzles is that you can also play with the pieces by themselves!

Cars

• Parking Garage
  1. On a large sheet of paper, draw a grid with numbered spaces.
  2. Collect several small (matchbox-type) cars with numbers on them. Or put a sticky dot on top of the car and write a number on the dot.
  3. Drive the numbered cars to their matching parking space with the same number.
  4. We had so much fun designing our own “Car Town!” We drove the cars to the different shops and stops, then drove them back to their numbered parking spot. Loved it!

• Painting Car Tracks
  1. Supply several small toy cars, a small plate of paint and a blank paper. I actually put blobs of paint on a large piece of wax paper and it seemed to work well.
  2. Let the kids dip the car’s tires in the paint.
  3. Drive the cars around the blank paper!

• Soapy Car Wash
  1. After you’re finished painting your car tracks picture, set up a car wash station at the sink. (It’s a MUST because those cars are yucky afterwards!)
  2. Fill the sink with soapy water and give the kids a toothbrush or sponge to wash their cars.
  3. TIP: I lay a towel out on either side of the sink and have one ready for the floor. They have fun, but it always makes a wet mess!

• Car Wash
  1. Make 3 full-page copies of an identical car clipart. You can use the one above … just click on it.
  2. Color each car differently (blue tires, green tires, red body, yellow body...)
  3. Place a transparency over a car or slide it inside a clear plastic page protector.
  4. Use a brown permanent marker to color over the car to appear as if the car were covered in mud.
  5. Start with the first car "covered in mud.”
  6. Repeat the following rhyme & remove the mud during the fifth line.
  7. Have the kids describe one thing he notices about the clean car.

One little car is in the car wash line

Covered with mud and dirt and grime,

He went in the car wash - scrub, scrub, scrub,

Splash, splash, splash & rub, rub, rub

When he came out he was clean and dry

The happy little car said "Thanks! Goodbye!”

• Real Car Wash
  1. Go through an automatic car wash.
  2. Or fill up a bucket with soap and water and wash the car outside together!
• Can you Guess which Car?!
  1. Display 5 toy automobiles with different attributes.
  2. With great drama, tell the kids you are thinking about a car that has four wheels & they need to guess which one it is.
  3. Help them recognize that you gave very poor clues because all the cars have four wheels.
  4. Add another attribute clue like "The car has four wheels and a yellow stripe" until the kids guess correctly.

 

• Pull out your toy car collection (okay, we have a huge one) and sort the cars by color, or size, or type.

Vehicles

• Missing Vehicle Game
  1. Make 3 copies of a boat, car, airplane and train clipart on 3 different colors of cardstock. Cut them out.
  2. Lay the cards on the floor with all red in the first row, all yellow in the second, all blue in the third.
  3. Make sure each column has the same vehicle (all the boats in the first column, cars in the second column...).
  4. Have the kids describe what they see & guide them to notice the rows are the same color & the columns are the same picture.
  5. Have the kids cover their eyes while you remove one of the cards.
  6. Help them identify the missing card by naming the color & the picture. Try it again!
• Vehicle Sorting
  1. Use the same vehicle cards from above & place them in a bag.
  2. Make 2 circles on the floor with yard (or use hoola hoops).
  3. Label the circles with tags that say "boats" & "not boats".
  4. Let the kids take one card from the bag & identify which circle it goes in. Continue with all the cards.
  5. Repeat by re-labeling the circles with different categories (red/not red, planes/not planes). Great for sorting skills!

   

• Construction Vehicle Counting
  1. Make several copies of 3 different construction vehicles. Just click on the images above if you’d like to use those!
  2. Draw a simple construction background on a large sheet of paper.
  3. Place a counting key in the bottom corner. Example:
     • __ bulldozers
     • __ steamrollers
     • __ dump trucks
     • __ cement mixers
  4. Introduce the name of each vehicle, then let the kids tape them to the construction site.
  5. When all cards are attached, count the number of each vehicle and write it in the key (one of them should be zero!)
  6. Show them that there are no steamrollers and they should write 0 in the steamroller place.

• Vehicles Rhyme Game
  1. Print out pictures of four different construction vehicles on cardstock.
  2. Cut them out and laminate for durability.
  3. Repeat the following rhyme and let the kids remove a vehicle each time...

[Four] big machines at the construction site

Worked, worked, worked with all [their] might!

The foreman called the [dump truck] away.

Then [three] big machines were left that day.

Snack Idea: Edible Excavators

1. Cook ground beef with mild taco seasoning.
2. Read a book about excavators & show how it uses its bucket to dig holes in the ground.
3. Give the kids corn chip scoops (buckets) and have them scoop five loads of dirt (ground beef) into their bowl.
4. Give them a few extra scoops to eat their dirt.