Activities About Transportation to Do With Pre-K Children

Safety Activities

• Have the pre-k kids create a mock road environment in which several students act as cars by walking up and down in different directions. The rest of the students can practice crossing the "road" safely with the teacher's help. They will first grab the hand of the adult, then adult and student will look both ways together and then cross the road when they determine it is clear. Children can learn about different traffic signs and what they mean at this stage. Even if they can't read the words, they can learn to recognize the shapes, colors and pictures on the signs. Teachers should create basic traffic signs with paper and explain each one to the class. The signs can be used like flash cards to quiz students on their meaning and the appropriate action to take for each sign. In order to practice riding safely in cars, instruct pre-k children to draw pictures of what a car ride should look like. Pictures might include a booster seat, seat belts, facing forward and being quiet.

Matching

• Matching activities can teach students to recognize different types of transportation vehicles and also serve as a lesson in recognizing differences between objects. For the first activity, print two identical pictures of each type of transportation, such as cars, buses, trucks, trains, boats, planes, bicycles and wagons. Paste the pictures to card stock and arrange face down on a table. Children can then flip over two cards at a time until the matching pairs are found. An alternative lesson is to provide groups of four of each type of transportation vehicle on a worksheet. Three of the pictures should be identical and one should be different. Students must identify the type of vehicle and then circle the picture that is different. Teachers could also draw a picture on the board that includes the sky, sea, tracks and a road. Students must then place vehicles in the appropriate place. Magnetic strips, sold in craft stores, can be glued to the back of pictures of vehicles so they stick to the board.

Transportation Observation

• Students practice counting skills and observation with this transportation activity. Take students outside or to a window where traffic can be safely observed. Have students count the number of buses, cars, trucks, bicycles and motorcycles that drive by and the airplanes that fly overhead. You could assign one type of vehicle for one or two students to count or you can count a new vehicle each day together as a class. If your school is on a very busy street, there may be more vehicles than the students can keep up with, so you might want to limit your counting to include only vehicles of a certain color. After you've finished counting, record your findings with stickers on a chart in the classroom. Students can then determine for themselves which vehicle passes by most often and the reasons this may be. For example, if there are more planes, it could be because there is an airport one mile away or there are more trucks because of the construction site down the street.

Play Activities

• There is perhaps no better way to teach children about transportation than to let them play with different vehicles. You can find small toys at most dollar or general merchandise stores. Create roads for students to drive on by taping construction paper to the floor. Black construction paper with yellow dots in the center is all you need to make the road. You can include paper traffic signs for student drivers to obey as they navigate their vehicles around the course. Sand play pits, paved courts and grass can all be used for driving vehicles outside. When it comes to toy planes, the sky really is the limit for play space. Before you give children a vehicle to drive, provide a brief explanation of what each vehicle is and what they are used for.