Transportation Theme: On the Road to Reading
While you are on the go, MobiStories produce downloadable books with a transportation theme that will read to your child anytime, anywhere. In boardbook form or downloaded onto your iPhone, your child will be learning about transportation.
So climb aboard! We're on the Road to Reading...
Table of Contents for the Road
Cars, Boats, Planes and Trains
- Language Arts
- Alphabet Truck Book
- Spelling Car
- Math
- Science
- Social Studies
- Art
- Music
- Physical Education
- Transportation Unit Study
- Transportation Lapbooks
- Boats, Ships and Water Transportation
- Bridges
- The Transportation Unit Study is in the Four Wheeler's Online Unit Study Directory
- Look Who's Twittering about Transportation
- What do you do with your Matchbox Cars?
Language Arts
A Visual History of Vehicles on the Road
Eyewitness Car Book
Clear pictures and just enough words to learn all about cars no matter what age the reader. Eyewittness Books and videos are some of our favorites and this Car one is no exception. It's a wonderful book to shuggle up with and discuss whatever strikes your fancy.
Car (DK Eyewitness Books)
Amazon Price: $19.99 (as of 12/07/2009) 
Transportation MobiStories Way
Books that read to your child on the road
No matter where you go MobiStories will be there to read to your child. MobiStories have books with transportation themes that any child will love to listen to. Not only that but in the MobiStories format your child will be looking at the words as each one is spoken which will aid your child in learning to read.MobiStories, digital books by well known children's authors, can read to your child on any Mp3 player.
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Choo! Choo! A Train Unit Study
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Have you ever stood near a railroad track and watched a train? Trains are fascinating. They seem to be going so slowly at first and then faster and faster as they get closer. No matter what age you are, everyone loves trains. As your child chugs alo...
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MobiStories: Digital Books for Children
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MobiStories are narrated digital children's books with illustrations and music written by famous authors such as Steven Kroll and Chris L. Demarest. Digital Books can be downloaded onto any MP3 device and offer children high quality, educational lit...
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Beep, Beep Goes the Bus
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One of the most popular themes for preschoolers is transportation. Listen to the sound of a bus going beep, beep, beep. Hear the roar of the bus as it pulls up to the bus stop. Notice the hiss of the air coming from the brakes. With their bright col...
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Big Annie: Mississippi Flatboat Captain
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Activities related to the story of Big Annie, a flatboat captain who, despite all odds, brings Christmas toys from New Orleans up the river to the children of Natchez. Learn about the cultures, historical times and wildlife along the Mississippi Riv...
Alphabet Truck Book
- Alphabet Truck
- Photographer Eric Tabuchi's limited edition book Alphabet Truck will delight young truck enthusiasts, especially those learning the alphabet. Wonderful addition to a Transportation Unit Study.
Spelling Car
Children can learn to spell over three dozen three-letter words! CAT HOP MAP and more. Perfect for beginning learners - language and rhyming patterns. Winner of the Parent's Choice Award in 2003.
MY Train Spelling Car
Amazon Price: $24.00 (as of 12/07/2009)
Car Spelling Song
On the road to Spelling
"Car, Bus, Van" song
(Tune: Jingle Bells)
C-A-R, C-A-R that's how you spell car
B-U-S, B-U-S that's how you spell bus
V-A-N, V-A-N that's how you spell van
Transportation helps us, I hope you understand!
Sing the song several times so they feel successful and can spell the words.
- Kindergarten Transportation Unit
- A Lesson Plans Page lesson plan, lesson idea, thematic unit, or activity.
Spell and Drive the Word Car
Can you spell the word road with the tracks?
1. Put together wooden train tracks in the form of the letters in the word CAR.
2. Help Sir Topham Hatt drive his car along the tracks spelling out the letters as you go.
For more ideas on learning penmanship to Learning Cursive.
BRIO Smart Track Starter Set
Amazon Price: (as of 12/07/2009)
Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway - Sir Topham Hatt's Car
Amazon Price: $12.99 (as of 12/07/2009)
Metal Cars and Magnet Words
Magnets follow the road to reading.
2. Make metal houses from washed and cleaned tin cans.
3. Set them out on a road rug.
4. Children drive around and find the word on the house that matches the word on the car.
Transportation Word Wall
Studies have shown that even at a very young age, children benefit from a print rich environment.
Posting pictures of vehicles with their names clearly marked can help children become more independent writers. A poster such as this one depicting modes of transportation could be hung on the wall above his or her desk as a quick and easy dictionary for writing about favorite forms of transportation.
Learn more about Word Walls:
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Word Walls and Pointers
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Word walls are a collection of words for beginning readers to use to promote learning in reading and writing. WordWalls are most effective when the children help to generate them. This lens will point out various types of WordWalls used in classroom...
Children love stories with a Transportation Theme
We all know that reading to our children is one of the most important ways to build literacy. Reading helps children to learn about the world, expand their imaginations and is comforting when tired or stresses.
Some of my son's favorite books on transportation were those cute little board books by Chris L. Demarest like Bus and Train. We read those stories over and over. I loved cuddling up and reading to him for hours on end.
Since he loved the transportation theme so much I always brought a few cars and books along with me whenever we had to do some errands. That served us well but there were times when I needed to focus my attention, for just a few minutes on a bank transaction or driving through a very busy section of town. How I wish I had had a way for the book to continue reading to him.
That technology now exists. Mobistories can help extend story time even when you need a few minutes to finish an important phone call or do a transaction at the bank. Now you can keep a Library of your child's favorite stories in your pocket.
Math
Pattern Block Transportation Puzzles
The Geometry of Transportation
Patten Blocks can be used to make all kinds of shapes including cars and trains. They teach children about spacial relations, geometry, angles and lead to concrete understanding of fractions.
Sometimes with make roads from pattern blocks and use toy cars to drive down the roads.
- Pattern Block Puzzles
- Enhance shape, color recognition and spatial relations skills. The geometric pictures include train, ship, car, and airplane.
- Use pattern-block puzzles to teach shape and area
- Use pattern-block puzzles to teach shape and area by Marilyn Burns from Instructor Magazine.
Transportation Pattern Blocks
Patten Blocks can be used to make cars, trucks and trains as in the puzzles above but they can also be used more abstractly to represent those vehicles.
Pretend that the yellow ones are trucks and the red ones are cars. They can be used to run along the roads of a road rug.
Make patterns of truck, truck, car, car, car and you have an AABBB pattern. That leads to 2 trucks plus 3 cars equals 5 vehicles. Which leads to 2+3=5.
PATTERN BLOCKS WOODEN
Amazon Price: $27.27 (as of 12/07/2009)
Sorting Matchbox Cars
Teaching your toddler or preschooler to sort matchbox cars by color is an early math skill which leads to counting and eventually addition and subtraction.
1. For the parking spaces place different colored construction paper on the floor
2. Park the cars in the parking space with the same color.
50 PC Race Car Set - Metal Plastic Die Cast Cars
Amazon Price: $26.94 (as of 12/07/2009)
Science
Car Play with Ramps
Physical Science for Children
Preschool car ramp play is full of problem solving opportunities which teach children about physical science concepts.
Help your child set up a ramp and watch the cars go.
1. Which cars go faster?
2. Which cars go further?
3. What happens when you change the angle of the ramp?
4. What happens when you change the surface of the ramp?
If you take digital pictures you can turn this experience into a book. Have your child help to label the pictures and soon he will be able to read his own book.
Use simple words and write them in large print. Try to use words from the Bus or Train MobiStories. The more times a word is seen the more likely your child will be able to remember it.
- Preschool Car Play with Ramps: Physical Science Activity for Children
- Preschoolers build car ramps for play full of physical science concepts. This children's science activity uses household items to create a learning activity.
- Investigating Friction
- Investigating the effects of friction by experimenting with objects on a ramp.
The Physics of Transportation
These books will help you understand the physics behind the activities your child is experimenting with when he is playing with his toy cars on toy roads and ramps.
Some of the books are directed towards older children which will especially help homeschoolers with children of various ages. Most of the ideas can be adapted up or down depending on the level of your children.
Social Studies
Forms of Transportation
People transport goods all over the world and the vehicles used are varied and amazing. Which forms have you used?
Favorite Forms of Transportation
If you could, what kind of vehicle would you drive?
Add your favorite forms of transportation and if you have a photo of one that you have made, just email it to me and I will add it to the photos here.
Transportation Theme on eBay
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
Vehicles at the Sand Table
- Transportation Theme - Sensory - Vehicles at the Sand Table
- Digging, excavating, hauling and transporting items from one place to another reinforces the concept of transportation as young learners interact at the sand table. Supply this center with a variety of items for vehicles to load, transport and unload.
Art
Richard Scarry's Cars
Set outbuttons
toothpicks
marshmallows
potatoes or Mr. Potato Head
K'nex
Legos
Lots of wheels
to make your own crazy cars.
Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks from A to Z (A Chunky Book(R))
Amazon Price: $3.99 (as of 12/07/2009)
Car Track Painting
- Car Track Painting
- Car track painting: You need a tray of paint and easy to clean cars with good tire treads. Have the kids drive in the paint and then on the paper.
Transportation Related Crafts
Cars and Trucks stop and go according to the traffic lights. To help the children learn to read the color words I write them lightly in pencil. The children trace over the letters and then color in the rest of the lights.
- Sail, Ride, Drive and Fly
- Books, Songs, and crafts for toddlers.
Music
Car Songs
Children's Concert at Town Hall
Amazon Price: (as of 12/07/2009)
Woody Guthrie Car Song Lyrics
- Riding In My Car (Car Song) Lyrics by Woody Guthrie
- Take me riding in the car, car;
Take me riding in the car, car;
Take you riding in the car, car;
I'll take you riding in my car.
Woody Guthrie Car Song
Physical Education
Exercize and the Transportation Theme
- Gross Motor Skills - What Are Gross Motor Skills?
- Gross Motor Skills - Learn about Gross Motor Skills, what they are, and why they are important.
- Red Light/Green Light
- In this game, one person plays the "stop light" and the rest try to touch him/her. At the start, all the children form a line about 15 feet away
from the stop light.The stop light faces away from the line of kids and says "green light".
Ride-On Transportation Vehicles
Transportation Unit Study
Do you use hands-on activities for teaching about transportation?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byYes, we get wet and wild on land, sea or air.
JoyfulPamela says:
Definately ~ how could we learn about transportation without movement! Cardboard boxes made into trains, planes, and automobiles become so much fun! All I have to do is stick a big box in the middle of the floor, and without a word from me, the kids are off on a grand adventure. What better way to learn than by playing with toy vehicles,acting out roles, and taking trips!
Posted August 22, 2009
Evelyn_Saenz says:
Though I love to read, watch videos and download MobiStories, I find that nothing can replace hands-on learning.
Posted December 21, 2008
No, we find that transportation is covered quite will in books, videos and MobiStories.
Who's Twittering about MobiStories?
MobiStories are Educational Digital Books, some with a transportation theme, that can read to your child while you drive.-
- MobiStories
- Periodic chart of graphic presentations. http://tinyurl.com/ydgnvw
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- MobiStories
- Anyone know of a rap version of "Row,Row, Row your Boat"?
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- familyonbikes
- @RickToone @MobiStories Thanks bunches for the congrats!
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- MobiStories
- RT @familyonbikes: For those that didn't hear eariler - WE REACHED THE EQUATOR!!! We've pedaled 16,634 km from Alaska!! <Fantastic!!!>
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- tigermps
- You should play around with Mobistories: http://mobistories.com
Transportation Lapbooks
- Katy and the Big Snow Lapbook
- The snow plow clears the way so that everyone else can get to work.
- Free Transportation Lapbook
- Transportation Lapbook by Linda Rose
Boats, Ships and Water Transportation
Big Annie runs a flatboat on the Mississippi River. Learn about riverboats and transportation on the Lower Mississippi during the first half of the 19th century.-
Big Annie: Mississippi Flatboat Captain
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Activities related to the story of Big Annie, a flatboat captain who, despite all odds, brings Christmas toys from New Orleans up the river to the children of Natchez. Learn about the cultures, historical times and wildlife along the Mississippi Riv...
Bridges
Learning how to Build Bridges
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Building Bridges Unit Study
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Garner Rix and his family moved from Connecticut to Vermont in 1780 by oxcart. During his captivity he walked to Montreal and back. What was it like to travel in the 18th Century? There were few roads and even fewer bridges. The bridges over streams...
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The Three Billy Goats Gruff
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Reading the classic tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff is a delightful way to kick off a Unit Study on Goats. We compare fiction and non-fiction goats, make graphs, build bridges and play lots of games. Goat's milk and goat cheese are staples in ma...
Transportation Lenses
Learn about all the forms of transportation used by Garner Rix.Build bridges with the Three Billy Goats Gruff.
Buses and Trains are wonderful transportation themes for learning all across the curriculum.
MobiStories are digital books that read books and include transportation related stories such as Bus, Train, Plane and Ship.
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Garner Rix and the Royalton Raid - 1780
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Garner Rix was just 12 when he moved with his father, pregnant mother, two sisters and three brothers from a farm in Connecticut to a log cabin on the banks of the White River, a place that would one day be called Royalton, Vermont. He helped h...
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Beep, Beep Goes the Bus
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One of the most popular themes for preschoolers is transportation. Listen to the sound of a bus going beep, beep, beep. Hear the roar of the bus as it pulls up to the bus stop. Notice the hiss of the air coming from the brakes. With their bright col...
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Mobistories Headquarters
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MobiStories: Downloadable Stories for Children MobiStories are downloadable stories for children by famous authors such as Chris L. Demarest, Sandra Robbins and Steven Kroll. You can download MobiStories onto any Mp3 device and let the narrator read...
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Choo! Choo! A Train Unit Study
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Have you ever stood near a railroad track and watched a train? Trains are fascinating. They seem to be going so slowly at first and then faster and faster as they get closer. No matter what age you are, everyone loves trains. As your child chugs alo...
The Transportation Unit Study is in the Four Wheeler's Online Unit Study Directory
Thank you to the Four Wheelers for including the The Transportation Unit Study in their Online Unit Study Directory.
- Internet Directory of Unit Studies
- The Four Wheelers Internet Directory of Unit Studies contains a list, roughly arranged by subject, of links to unit studies that are published on the Internet.
Look Who's Twittering about Transportation
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- Modifiedcarclub
- Non Related Chat • Re: 1/10 scale drifting cars....: Wtf this is supposed to be a modified car club not a toy .. http://bit.ly/5YTqqb
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- anchiedendai
- RT @Terooo: @VanessaMdee i love you. #christmaslist a car ;-)....thank you :-* (vee i saw some nice affordable cars at toy world :-D)
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- leasedcars
- Oxnard fundraiser uses classic cars for toy drive http://bit.ly/8tpDna
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- bassman32
- Oxnard fundraiser uses classic cars for toy drive http://bit.ly/5vuXHs
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What do you do with your Matchbox Cars?
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Reply
- Mortira Mortira Dec 4, 2008 @ 8:22 pm
- My little guy has just discovered toys with wheels, and they're very exciting.
Great lens! Welcome to the Family Time group! * * * * *
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Reply
- Nathanville Nathanville Oct 17, 2008 @ 1:11 am
- Great theme for trans and transportation, packed with plenty of useful and entertaining information and pictures, I particularly like the cat and mouse cars.
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About the Author of this Lens
Evelyn's Hands-On Learning Blog.
Find out what else I'm doing with I'm not riding in my car:
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Evelyn Saenz: Lensography of a Teacher
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My passion is teaching and finding ways to teach children in fun, hands-on, creative ways. The unit studies I make on Squidoo reflect my view that learning should be integrated and no skills should be taught in isolation. I believe that each topic s...
by Evelyn_Saenz
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