ToddlerActivities : 35 Transportation Activities for Preschoolers! Things that GO!

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

35 Transportation Activities for Preschoolers! Things that GO!

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Transportation activities for preschoolers, plus transportation crafts to make and even our favorite books for kids that love things that go!

I don’t know about you, but all my boys can play with are things that go… you know… things with wheels! Part of the activities planner I do each week, is writing down what the kids are currently interested in. It always has some sort of transportation listed.

I’m not saying its “a boy thing” because I know girls like their fair share of ‘things that go’ too. But check out the Pinterest boards that I found that have everything for boys!

It seems that if I add a vehicle of some sort to an activity, the boys are much more interested and excited to take part of the activity, whether it’s a craft, art or learning activity. They’re much more into it.

So, I’ve found a few ideas to add transportation to our activities.

35 transportation activities for preschoolers that love ‘Things that Go!’

35 vehicle transportation activities for kids that like things with wheels

Quite a few that use the vehicles that you already got. And even some that create the vehicles for an activity.

And I also couldn’t leave you without adding in quite a few of our favorite transportation books. They all happen to have vehicles in them (of course!).

So, for the avid vehicle lovers, here are some activities to get them interested. And maybe give their motors a break (and your ears a relief) for a while.

Our favorite and fun transportation activities for preschoolers!

Including crafts and books for the vehicle loving kid!

Using vehicles that you already have for transportation activities for preschoolers:

Haul corn. Corn kernels and vehicles. Let the hauling begin.
Tape a maze on your floor and add some numbers. Have your child drive and count their way through the maze.
Draw out a big maze on the driveway and drive through it!
Set out some flour to explore and play with. Before long the vehicles will be added in for some hauling and track making, too!
Build a city of blocks and drive through it.
Stack block towers, but all the blocks with a dump truck or semi. Count the towers as you’re building them!
Paint with Vehicles! Add some trucks, tractors, cars, whatever vehicles you have to some paint and paper and compare the tracks that they make! (Make it bigger and take it outside!)
Make a learning activity for counting with grain bins and tractors. Use marshmallows to haul and count!
Simply add a few vehicles to some play dough and make a construction site.
Be inspired by a favorite book about vehicles and act it out! (such as The Little Blue Truck book. See more vehicle books that we love below!)
Reuse bubble wrap for a road. Drive some big vehicles on it to hear the Pop!
Make and indoor activity course and use a big vehicle to take through the course as they do their activities.
Put together an ice investigation to see if salt or sand makes the ice less slippery for vehicles driving on it.
Make a ramp from a cardboard box and test out how the cars and trucks make it down.
Use wagons, or semi trailers, or even dump trucks and experiment to see how much water each vehicle holds.
Convince your child to clean up! Have a car wash for the toy vehicles! – Famiglia & Seoul
Tape out a road on the floor and drive, drive, drive!
Use printables to sort your own emergency vehicles! – Taming the Goblin
A color coded parking lot to match your own toy vehicles to. – A Happy Wanderer
A very fun sensory activity, a shaving cream car wash. – Lessons Learnt Journal
Construction sensory activity with construction vehicles and rocks. – Pink and Green Mama
Use a box to extend train play, make The Sports Enough Tunnel. – Celebrate Every Day With Me
Another sensory activity that might be better than the sandbox, cloud dough with vehicles. – In Lieu of Preschool
Counting with trucks! Use dump trucks to see how many dominoes it can hold then count them! – Inspiration Laboratories
Monster Smash! Add crayons and monster trucks to a cardboard box and create your own Monster rally arena! – Small Potatoes

Making your own vehicles for transportation activities for preschoolers:

Create a train with a recycled egg carton and a pipe cleaner.
Hand over a cardboard box to the kids and see what kind of vehicle they can make with it.
Dive into your child’s interests and make a book. Head to the local dealerships and get their catalogs!
Count semis! Or dump trucks, or other vehicles while on a road trip.
Create a busy town, complete with vehicle ‘puppets’ to drive along the road. – The Art Annex
Put the kids to ‘work’ with a pretend car wash using washable markers and craft foam. – Inner Child Fun
Create a dump truck out of egg cartons. – Rub Some Dirt on It
Make a picture of a truck out of drinking straws. – No Time for Flash Cards
Put together a train with your chairs and invite your stuffed animals to ride in the train cars! – Family Fun Notebook
Sort toys in homemade train cars of paper bags, by letter sounds! – Think Magnet

Our Favorite Transportation Books for Preschoolers:

Almost every book that we read very regularly has to do with vehicles too. Mostly tractors and trucks, but a few trains in there too.

First of all, I ran across this list of books from Slimy Bookworm that is geared towards boys, but almost every one on there is about a vehicle.

Here’s our 10 favorite transportation books:

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