Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Classroom

Last Updated on August 28, 2025 by Sheryl Cooper

Inside: Setting up a transportation theme in the toddler and preschool classroom is so easy, because there is such a wide variety of activities to try. We added some favorites that our children loved!

The transportation theme is one that I could spend weeks on. There seriously are so many fun ideas!

We had a car wash in our dramatic play area, a construction zone in our sensory bin, lots of transportation toys and fun matching games to try.

In fact, I have included a few free printable transportation activities that you are welcome to download and use with your children. Just scroll down and you will see the links under the related photos.

Setting Up the Transportation Theme

Check out a few of our transportation theme classroom set up videos:

Dramatic Play

In our dramatic play area, we set up a car wash complete with a coffee bar for our customers.

We hung banners on the ceiling and had different transportation clothes on our dress up cart.

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

A cardboard box and a plastic table cloth were our make-believe car wash. We even had tickets to hand out to our customers.

Related: 25+ Dramatic Play Activities

Block Area

Our train table displayed some fun transportation toys, such as:

Melissa & Doug Service Station and Drive-Thru Car Wash

Melissa & Doug Car Carrier Truck

Lakeshore Block Play Garages

On the floor we had the Melissa & Doug Round the City Rescue Rug.

Related: The Best Block Activities

Books

I love to display books around the classroom, like this book called Old Tracks, New Tricks.

We read several books, including Red Truck.

Transportation Theme Table Activities

Red Tow Truck Counting Puzzle

You can download the free printables here: Red Truck Counting Cards 1-10

Car Color Matching

You can download the free printables here: Car Color Matching Activity

I also created a wheels matching activity after reading the book What Do Wheels Do All Day?

I made 2 copies of each page and laminated both. I kept one copy as is, and cut apart the second copy.

My preschoolers then matched the separated cards to those on the full pages.

You can download the free printables here: Wheels Matching Activity

Another fun activity for our transportation theme was a space rocket magnetic building set. It has a surprise astronaut inside, which thrilled my preschoolers!