Hippo Headlines: Street Traffic...End of Transportation- 3 day class

We had another great week learning and exploring types of transportation! Many of the centers were focused on transportation you find on the roads. Below is a list of the activities and pictures centered around our theme:

The week began by brainstorming and showing different pictures of vehicles that go on the road. We discussed the differences between vehicles such as a school bus and a city bus. (participating as a member of a group, confident behavior, voice volume)
Our letter was J for jeans, jump and jelly, Julian and Jack
We sorted vehicles by land, air, train tracks and water. We counted the pictures and compared the 4 columns. (comparing numbers..more, less, equal)
Everyone had a ball washing our matchbox cars with soapy water and toothbrushes!(sensory)
We played the rainbow car game this week in which we picked a colored cube from a bag without looking. Whatever color we picked we moved that colored car one space. It was fun to try and predict what color we would pull from the bag and which colored car would win the race. This game lent itself to counting, comparing numbers, colors and predicting.
Our arch turned into a carwash with scooters pretending to be cars. We showed the students a video of a car going through the car wash. If you get a chance take your child to a carwash someday. (gross motor)
Each of us showed respectful behavior as we practiced "thinking the answer in our head" while another student was called on to give an answer from the question cards. We read clues and we had to guess which vehicle it was.
We signed in to which was our favorite: train, car, plane or boat. We counting and compared the numbers. We then wrote in our journal about which was our favorite and drew a picture of it.
During center time, we traced over real license plates with crayons and practiced recognizing the letters/numbers. (fine motor, letter and number recognition)
Everyone enjoyed playing the parking lot game in which we rolled a dice, found the number on parking space, then parked our car in that space. (recognizing numbers)
We also played another parking lot game in which we counted the dots on the parking spaces and matched them to the correct number on the car. (one to one counting)
We played the stop/go game in which the students followed the sign I held up during gym class. We also did transportation yoga. (letter/word recognition, following directions, gross motor)
The hippos also enjoyed playing with trucks in kinetic sand.
We used a squirt bottle with water to pretend to wash cars on the easel. Our teacher said the letter and sound and we squirted that car. (letter recognition/fine motor/building upper body)
We signed our names on clouds at the easel. (building upper body strength which builds muscles used for writing)
Our sensory table was filled with water, tongs, boats and bears!! ( sensory, fine motor)
We read a book about our character word of the month-CARING! We discussed what it means to be caring and how we are caring to others.
We matched vehicle cards and cards from the movie, Cars, as well as sorting cars.
During our 2nd steps lesson we learned some steps we can do to calm down when we are frustrated. First, put your hand on our tummy and say stop. Then think about solutions to solve the problem.
We enjoyed using the hot wheel tracks to make big ramps for the cars to go down. We also used street signs and little houses with our cars.
We each had a turn patterning vehicles.

Questions to Ask your Child:

1. What is your favorite land vehicle?

2. In the book, If I Built A Car, what did the boy build in his car? (pool, fish tank, food area, car turned into a boat, submarine, airplane)

3. What did we use to clean cars in the soapy water? ( toothbrushes)
4. Where would we see a license plate? (on your car)
5. What vehicle has 2 wheels and a motor? (motorcycle)

6. What vehicle takes students to school? (bus)

7. What did our classroom arch turn into? (car wash)

8. Which costs money, a school bus or a city bus?

Books we read:

If I Built a Car

Tough Trucks

The Litlle Blue Truck

What to practice at home:

*Make up riddles or clues for your child to guess the right vehicle (i.e. it has 2 wheels, it goes on land, and you do all the work. Answer: a bike). When driving point out different street signs and environmental signs. We discussed some and many of the children said they have seen them before. Also, show your children your license plate on your car. Practice recognizing the numbers and letters.

Next week:
Gingerbread

Reminders:

Thursday 11:00 winter party in the hippo room-parents invited
Winter Break 12/20-1/6 School resumes Monday 1/6, school resumes 1/7

The pictures below show our learning objectives in action. Enjoy the fun!