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You are here: Home / Themes / Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Classroom

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Classroom

May 25, 2018 by Sheryl Cooper

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This post might contain affiliate links. CLICK HERE for more information. Thanks for visiting!

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 in the Classroom

 

Setting Up the Transportation Theme

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

  • Classroom Video Tour Year #1
  • Classroom Video Tour Year #2
  • Classroom Video Tour Year #3

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.

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

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

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

Books

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

You can see how we use this book here.

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

We read several books, including Red Truck.

Related: Our Favorite Transportation Books

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

 

Transportation Theme Table Activities

Red Tow Truck Counting Puzzle

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

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

Car Color Matching

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

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

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

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

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

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

Sensory Table

We had a construction zone in our sensory table using kinetic sand and CAT mini machine construction vehicles.

By the way, if you haven’t felt kinetic sand yet, you must. It’s amazing!

You can read more about this activity here.

Related: Big Collection of Sensory Table Activities

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

Science and Discovery

At our discovery table we had our Mix or Match Vehicles activity. Our preschoolers loved that they could mix a boat with a car!

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

Art

One of our art activities involved driving different types of transportation vehicles through paint and then onto paper.

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

We then washed them in our water table with sponges.

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

More Transportation Ideas

Car Props for Circle Time

Transportation Playlist on Spotify

30+ of the Best Transportation Theme Ideas

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Classroom

 

Toddler and Preschool Transportation Lesson Plans

We’ve done the work for you! We now have interactive thematic lesson plans for toddlers (18-35 months) AND preschoolers (3-5 years)!

Get ready for fun and learning with unit lesson plans for transportation.

Explore a variety of themed hands-on activities!

Easy to follow lesson plans include activity modifications and adaptations to meet the needs of all learners.

For more information, click on the graphics below:

toddler transportation lesson plans

preschool lesson plans transportation

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Filed Under: preschool, Teachers, Themes, Toddlers Tagged With: preschool, printable, teachers, themes, toddlers, transportation

About Sheryl Cooper

Sheryl Cooper is the founder of Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds, a website full of activities for toddlers and preschoolers. She has been teaching this age group for over 20 years and loves to share her passion with teachers, parents, grandparents, and anyone with young children in their lives.

Previous Post: « Spool-Stamped Toddler Ocean Fish Art
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Welcome! I'm Sheryl Cooper, teacher of 2 and 3 year olds for over 19 years. Read more about me here!

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