June 8, 2019 by ppearls No CommentsLesson Plans

Toddler’s Guide to Transportation

Between teething (when does it end) and a sick dog, I have really been struggling to document our exploration through the world of transportation. I thought the days of unwashed hair and dirty clothes were behind me, but it looks like it’s #throwbackthursday.

Without further ado, here are our adventures!

Supplies Needed

cardboard box
duct tape
Melissa and Doug Airplane & Passengers
a set of cars (any set will do; we used these)
assorted balls
Melissa and Doug transportation puzzle
Town Mat

The Plan

Reading: The Little Engine that Could and Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site: Dump Truck’s Colors

We’ve been working on how to properly handle paper books, as opposed to our board books. To that end, we had two books to focus on for the module. I really enjoyed the rhyming scheme of the Dump Truck. It was a great find at our local library.

Nursery Rhyme: Wheels on the Bus

I have included a link to the lyrics here. Just in case you’re like me and can’t remember more than one verse.

Focus Words: Car Plane Boat

Visual Aid: Transportation Word Cards

I found these darling transportation flash cards from PreKinders. I only took out a few at a time, otherwise Vicky found it a bit overwhelming.

Sensory Activity: Airport Bin

I decided to use both sides of our Flisat table but changed up the positioning of the Trofast bins. I took an old cardboad box and covered all sides in duct tape. I had saved a dozen of our old Beech Nut baby cereal lids for a rainy day, and used two to act as “baggage claim”. I used some blandly colored lentils to act as our pavement, and set up the airport terminal at the edge of the table. On the other side of the table, I flipped over the bin so that the bottom was elevated several inches above the surface of the table. Then I repeated the same duct tape process to another piece of cardboard and outlined my “runway”. With that, my not to scale model of Miami International Airport was complete!

Sidenote: MIA is my second least favorite airport. It is a close second behind Atlanta. While I wanted to have a pretty sensory bin, I did want to say true to the unappealing aesthetics of the airport.

Science: Which objects will roll down the ramp

This was an amazing experiment I found on PreKinders, as well. I grabbed a tennis ball, a cotton ball, one of her blocks, and of course the airplane. We talked about the different reasons the objects did or did not roll down the ramp. This activity was very much enjoyed by a little girl who likes throwing things to the ground.

Fine Motor: Transportation Puzzle

This was part of a set I had bought for Vicky awhile back. She is a big fan of puzzles lately and this was perfect for our theme!

Small Word: Cars and Mat

A long time ago when Vicky was a little baby and hated toddler time, I found this mat on Amazon. I needed a way to soften our tile floors and give her something to look at. This mat was a great choice and now we use it for some small world play. Small world play is so important.
When I first started setting up these types of activities I kept reading the same buzzword “small world play”, but I wasn’t entirely sure I knew what it meant. According to Early Childhood Ireland: “Small-world play is an ideal way in which to facilitate the extension of a child’s vocabulary. Through storytelling and acting out scenarios children are able to cultivate their imaginations and to develop the language with which to express their imaginative ideas.” Essentially, these types of activities help them play pretend and explore different aspects of this big big world. ⠀

I pulled this mat out of storage and we sat on the ground driving and parking our cars. This set is great because it has different type of commercial vehicles that she might encounter, such as a school bus or dump truck.