Learning Center Ideas Use these center ideas to continue children’s independent learning about transportation.
Math Center Sort Vehicles
Block Center Ride Down the Road
Gather several pictures or counters of two kinds of vehicles—cars and bikes or trucks and trains—whatever is available. Label one piece of colored paper “cars”; put the name of the other vehicle on a different color of paper. Have children sort the vehicles by placing them on the correct colored paper “parking lot.” Extension idea: Children can make a tally chart of their vehicle
Make toy vehicles, figurines, and multiple types of building materials available in this center. Encourage children to use blocks to make long and short roads. Children can draw road signs and tape them to the blocks. Some children may want to shape the roads into racetracks and toy racecars.
Extension idea: Encourage children to work with a partner to have two of the characters meet and talk as they travel together.
sort. Have them title each column by drawing one vehicle at the top. Then have children use tally marks to represent the number of vehicles in each column.
Science Center Exploring Ramps Set up your science center with a variety of toy cars and ramps. • Ramps should come in a few sizes and can be made of heavy cardboard, plastic sheets, or wooden planks. • Include blocks so that children can change the angle of the ramps. Encourage children to compare how fast or slow cars and trucks go down each ramp. Encourage them to note what happens when they change the angle of the ramp or when they use a smaller or larger vehicle. Extension idea: Include ramps with different textures (such as sand paper or tin foil) so that children can also explore the effect of friction on their vehicles.
Classroom Library Extend the theme by adding related books and media to your classroom library. • Down by the Station by Will Hillenbrand • I Stink! by Kate and Jim McMullan (Weston Woods Book with Audio) • Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton (Weston Woods Book with Audio) • School Bus/El autobus escolar (English or Spanish) by Donald Crews • The Wheels on the Bus by Paul O. Zelinsky (Weston Woods Video)
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