Need some ideas for a transportation theme? I’m here to help! I’m sharing my favorite, most engaging transportation themed activities with you. I also created Road Number Mats FREEBIE for you too! AND a train name craftivity FREEBIE! Go grab you lesson plan book and get ready to be inspired!
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Truck roll and count is a low prep, hands counting game your students will love. Students roll the die, count out the corresponding number of mini eraser trucks and place in an hole. If you have younger learners who need work with one-to-one correspondence, have them put one truck per one hole.
I’m always trying to find ways to sneak in fine motor everywhere I can. A great way to do this is to add tweezers to this game! The tweezers are called Gator Tweezers.
“How many are hiding” games are a fun way to teach informal subtraction. Student A closes his eyes and student B hides some, none or all of the planes under the cloud. Student A opens his eyes and guesses how many are hiding based on how many planes they can see on the board.
Make measuring fun using real objects. Grab any vehicles, planes and trains you have and tape a line to the table or floor. Students compare the objects and order them by height. It is tricky but so much fun.
Freebie alert! Road Number Mats are the perfect play dough mat for a transportation theme. Students identify the number, make the corresponding number of play dough balls and drive the car on the road to trace the number! I found these cars at the Dollar Tree.
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Transportation shape collages combine art and math! Combining shapes to make a picture helps students develop spatial awareness. I like to put this activity in the art center.
There are so many different ways to sort types of transportation. I like to use sorting boards because it gives students a visual cue as they sort.
Try to sort things in many ways not just by color, size and shape. Sorting helps students notice similarities and differences in objects.
Race to 20 is a fun counting game for my little learners. Students roll a die and dot the corresponding number of spaces on their board using dot markers. If you make a rule that the player has to have the exact amount to end the game, it gives students the opportunity to explore more and less.
Want to practice addition? Just play the game using two dice. Students roll the dice, add and dot the total.
Transportation is the perfect theme to teach about maps. We looked at real road maps then students drew their own maps. I just love how this little learner had Target at the center of his map!
I filled my bookshelf with tons of transportation books. Don’t forget to add non-fiction books to the bookshelf too! Check out my Transportation Book List HERE.
Trains sound puzzles! I always have several students every year who LOVE trains. I try to make themed games I know they are interested in.
There are SO many long transportation vocabulary words! I decided to make a transportation themed syllable game. You know you are a teacher when you get excited about long, 4-syllable words. To get kids up and moving, I added a movement spinner. Students spin the spinner and instead of clapping the syllables like we usually do, they move a different way to count the syllables.
Transportation themed writing center! I added transportation vocabulary cards (uppercase set and a lowercase set) in the black pocket chart, transportation stickers (from the Dollar Spot), transportation writing paper and colorful writing tools.
Boat writing tray! I am in love with writing trays and so are my students. I just can’t say enough about how amazing writing trays are. The soft sand, soothes students making writing fun and hands-on. I found some blue sand at the Dollar Tree and added some glitter to represent water. Students had fun practicing writing letters in the “water.” The trays came with this lacing set.
Writing letters can be hard with so many different lines going in different directions. Pre-writing cards give students the opportunity to practice making different types of lines in isolation.
Cutting collages are a fun way to practice scissor skills. At my grocery store, there is a small rack with car sales ads. They are the perfect for cutting collages, and they’re free. I tear out pages and set them in the middle of the table. Students pick the page they want and cut out the vehicles.
Train Cutting Craftivity! Practice cutting skills and spelling their names with this cute train name project. Students will love making a train with their name and picking all their colors. These make a great craft to put on the bullentin board too!
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My transportation play dough tray is mostly transportation counters. I also added clean gems (clouds), tiny popsicle sticks and play dough. Blue represents water or the sky, green represents grass and black represents a road. By using counters, students will also naturally sort the objects too as they create!
For a transportation theme, I usually make the sensory table into a construction site with diggers, gravel and tubes. I added the letter rocks to infuse some literacy. I made these letter rocks using stones from the Dollar Tree.
I like to have the same theme all over my classroom! I took the transportation theme to the science center too by doing a ramps study. I posted real photos of ramps, books about ramps, sketch paper and cove molding (ramp prices). Students engineered different ramps exploring many physical science concepts such as speed, incline and balance. You can grab my All About Ramps science unit from my TPT store HERE.
In the blocks center, I added different types of transportation figures, transportation books, foam boards (green represents grass, brown represents dirt, blue represents water), and STEM Transportation I Can Build challenge posters. The posters have real photos which is so inspiring for students. The STEM posters spark new ideas, activate background knowledge, and/or challenge students to build something they may not have thought of. It is an easy way to add STEM to the blocks center!
Painting with trucks is always a fun way to paint. Try painting with trains, monster trucks and other types of transportation too. It’s fun to compare the types of tracks each object makes.
We changed our dramatic play center into an Auto Shop! It was awesome! The boys loved it. The girls loved it. Everyone loved it! Go read all about the Auto Shop HERE.
Want ALL my transportation printables? Save time and grab my Transportation Math and Literacy Centers HERE. Just print and prep.
Want to change your dramatic play center into an Auto Shop. Go grab it HERE.
Go grab Transportation STEM I Can Build which includes land, air, sea, trains, construction themes HERE.
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