Transportation Unit Study
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On the Road to Reading with a Transportation Theme
Young children are always on the go so it only follows that some of their favorite toys are cars, boats, planes and trains. This transportation theme can wheel us along with games, math activities and science projects that keep your child busily learning no matter where you go.
So climb aboard! We're on the Road to Reading...
So climb aboard! We're on the Road to Reading...
Table of Contents for the Road
Cars, Boats, Planes and Trains
Language Arts
On the Road
A Visual History of Vehicles on the Road
Eyewitness Car Book
Train Steam Locomotives
Buy at AllPosters.com
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 the Eyewitness Car Book is no exception. It's a wonderful book to snuggle up with and discuss cars.
Alphabet Truck Book
A Truck for Every Letter
Photo Credit: Alphabet Truck
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
Imagine 26 trucks, each with a different letter of the alphabet. What cargo could each truck carry that started with the appropriate letter of the alphabet?
Help your child write a Bill of Lading, the paperwork a truck driver must fill out in order to accept and deliver a load of goods. The first truck might be carrying apples, the second bananas while the third truck might carry cars. For younger children, just ask them to write the one word for the item in the truck. More advanced children might fill out a more elaborate form.
Attach the Bill of Lading to the trucks and then see how many of the truck cargo papers your child can remember how to read.
- 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
Spelling Train 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.
Car Spelling Song
On the road to Spelling
When teaching it is important to use as many senses as possible. Here is a way to use music to practice spelling words.
"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.
"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 be sure to visit Penmanship: The Art of Teaching Handwriting.
Metal Cars and Magnet Words
Magnets follow the road to reading.
1. Attach magnet words to your metal toy cars.
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.
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:
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:
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.
Transportation MobiStories Way
Books that read to your child on the road
Here are a few unit studies with a transportation theme that feature books produced by MobiStories. These books about buses, cars, boats and trains have been expanded to include activities that will teach your children to read, write and lean math concepts while interacting with their favorite toys. You will be able to download each of these stories in the MobiStories format which is compatable with Mp3 players, iPhones and many other divices so that your child can have a story read to him or her anytime, anyplace.
No matter where you go, MobiStories will be there to read to your child. MobiStories has books with transportation themes that any child will love to listen to. Your child will be looking at the words as each one is spoken. Listening while looking at each word will aid is one of the best ways to help your child learn to read.
Though these transportation unit studies are written with the MobiStories tales in mind, you do not need to have read them to find lots of fun, creative, hands-on activities to do with your car, truck, train, bus or plane loving child.
No matter where you go, MobiStories will be there to read to your child. MobiStories has books with transportation themes that any child will love to listen to. Your child will be looking at the words as each one is spoken. Listening while looking at each word will aid is one of the best ways to help your child learn to read.
Though these transportation unit studies are written with the MobiStories tales in mind, you do not need to have read them to find lots of fun, creative, hands-on activities to do with your car, truck, train, bus or plane loving child.
Math on the Road
Pattern Block Transportation Puzzles
The Geometry of Transportation
Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards
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
Transportation Math
Photo Credit: Patten Block Space Ship
on Flickr, Creative Commons
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.
Sorting Matchbox Cars
When you are driving down the road, look for different colors of cars. How many red cars do you see? How many blue cars? Are there more red cars or blue cars on the road?
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.
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.
The Road to 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 of Transportation
Forms of Transportation
Horned Rickshaw Man in Bulawayo Southern Rhodesia
Woman in Zebra Cart, Tijuana, Mexico
People transport goods all over the world and the vehicles used are varied and amazing. Which forms have you used?
Transportation Theme on eBay
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.
- Sensory Table Ideas
- One day I set up a Sensory Table in my kitchen with potting soil, small toy animals and birdseed. The children played with the animals, created rivers with a pitcher of water and then put on the cover for a couple of days while we were away. What a surprise they had when they came back and found tha
Have you ever riden on a camel?
Other forms of Transportation
Road Art
Richard Scarry's Cars
Richard Scarry uses lots of imagination to draw cars of all shapes and sizes.
Set out
buttons
toothpicks
marshmallows
potatoes or Mr. Potato Head
K'nex
Legos
Lots of wheels
to make your own crazy cars.
Set outbuttons
toothpicks
marshmallows
potatoes or Mr. Potato Head
K'nex
Legos
Lots of wheels
to make your own crazy cars.
Car Track Painting
Let your children "drive" toy vehicles through paint and then across their paper to form car or truck track paintings.
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. Finally they can run the cars though the "Car Wash", a shallow pan of soapy water to clean the paint off.
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. Finally they can run the cars though the "Car Wash", a shallow pan of soapy water to clean the paint off.
- Car Track Painting
- Combine art and play by using toy cars as painting tools.
- Mum Paints Lives: Painting with toy vehicles(technique 2)
- Pour paint on a paper and let your toddler roll toy cars through it. What a fun art project!
Transportation Related Crafts
Photo Credit: Traffic Light Bright
on Texas State Library and Archives
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 On the Road Again
Car Songs
Pete Seeger sings a Woody Guthrie song "Riding in My Car".
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.
Physical Education
Moving on Down the Road
Exercize and the Transportation Theme
Red Light Green Light Game
- 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
Ride-on Toys are not only fun but also help to develop Gross Motor Skills giving children a full body workout to build body awareness and improve overall movement.
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.
Donnette says:
I do with Aiden, and his massive selection of everything that would go if it could go :)
Posted July 11, 2011
Pastiche says:
Adding this to race cars coloring lensroll - and emailing to my grandson who loves trucks and cars.
Posted August 26, 2010
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 well in books, videos and MobiStories.
Transportation Lapbooks
History of Fire Engines Coloring Book (Cars & Trucks)
Many of the ideas in these lapbooks can be used to make lapbooks related to the MobiStories transportation themed books such as Bus, Train, Plane and Ship.
- 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.
Bridges
Learning how to Build Bridges
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.
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.
Transportation Literacy Bags
Literacy Bags contain a couple of books on a particular theme with a few related activities. I like to include a related stuffed animal and a journal where the adventures of the stuffed animal can be written. You can develop your own Literacy Bags or choose from the ones below:
For ideas on developing your own Transportation Literacy Bags and how to use them, be sure to visit the above link.
Transportation Brainy Bundle
This transportation bundle is geared to ages 3-5 and covers trains, planes and automobiles. Roadsigns is a book about what the signs on the road mean. Motor match is a matching magnet picture book with all types of vehicles. There is also the story of Little Toot, a tugboat and an airplane floor puzzle. There is a transportation learning puzzle, a car crayon and an engineer's hat. It all comes in a wooden tray featuring vehicle cut outs on it.1 point
Literacy Bags Make Homework Fun!
Book Bags. Home Bags, Book Buddies, Story Bags... Literacy Bags are a fun way to help children share what they are learning with their families. Children take these literacy bags home, read the stories, do the activities with their families and then write about their experiences in the journal. Soon...1 point
Stone Stoup Homeschooling Online Unit Study Directory
The Transportation Unit Study is in the Stone Stoup Homeschooling Online Unit Study Directory
Thank you to the Four Wheelers for having included the http://www.squidoo.com/road/">The Transportation Unit Study i in their directory. This directory has now been passed on to Stone Soup Homeschooling.
- Stone Stoup Homeschooling Online Unit Study Directory
- Stone Soup Homeschool Network We are very excited to be entrusted with this rather comprehensive Unit Study Database. It was started many years ago, and maintained for the last decade by the
Look Who's Twittering about Transportation
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- Weezys_Finesser
- RT @MiMiCole_: Jst Had A Flash Back.. Remember When Keedrick Said That Lady Car Look Like One Of Them Toy Cars You Pull Back & It Go By Itself! Lmao!
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- MiMiCole_
- @Weezys_Finesser Remember When Keedrick Said That Lady Car Look Like One Of Them Toy Cars You Pull Back & It Go By Itself! Lmao!
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- MiMiCole_
- Jst Had A Flash Back.. Remember When Keedrick Said That Lady Car Look Like One Of Them Toy Cars You Pull Back & It Go By Itself! Lmao!
-
- Autism_Papa
- Harrison actually shared one of his toy cars with his little brother tonight and didn't try to trick him while doing it!!!
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- wobusod
- Disney Pixar Cars Dinoco Helicopter (Toy) http://t.co/imv4XRZv
automatically generated by Twitter
What do you do with your Matchbox Cars?
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kmmcab
Dec 16, 2011 @ 10:03 pm | delete
- I like your lens i am trying do the same thing but was not able to i can not write like you did very impressive i vote for you.
Taxi Service Sacramento
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waldenthree.net
Dec 1, 2011 @ 12:50 pm | delete
- Important and valuable topic--Transporation for kids. Thanks. Topic 2: Inspire kids to transportation of future for grandma and grandpa ?
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Donnette
Jul 11, 2011 @ 2:56 pm | delete
- Aiden has the biggest collection in the whole world! Your passion for teaching and making learning fun shines through in every single lens.. thank you for being such an inspiration!
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Jimmie
Feb 27, 2011 @ 8:02 pm | delete
- I am most pleased that you used my pattern blocks photo! :-)
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moonlitta
Feb 19, 2011 @ 8:27 pm | delete
- This is a really good resource for teaching kids
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Mortira
Dec 4, 2008 @ 8:22 pm | delete
- 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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DanSuciu
Aug 20, 2010 @ 4:35 am | delete
- If you would get your kid to love the learn spelling games it would be a great thing for him, children create the image of the world as they will perceive it for the rest of their life at an early age and it's important for them to consider learning as a part of any activity, including playing. This is a very interesting article.
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Nathanville
Oct 17, 2008 @ 1:11 am | delete
- 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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Follow me as I update all my transportation lenses and find out what else I'm up to:
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About the Author of this Lens
Transportation in the Kingdom
Congratulations! This lens is included in the Best Review Top 10 Transportation Unit Studies
Come write transportation themed activities on Wizzley, a fun and easy place to express your opinion:
by Evelyn_Saenz
Evelyn_Saenz
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... more »
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Learning on the Road
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Transportation Unit Study
