Hippo Headlines: 2025-12-07

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. We also brainstormed the different types of trucks! (participating as a member of a group, confident behavior, voice volume)
Our letter was D for dad and dog.
We counted real rocks to fill our dump trucks. (one to one counting, number recognition)
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 tickets and scooters. 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.
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)
During group time we pretended to be a car wash. I squirted the car (which was another student) with soapy water (light water mist with squirt bottles) and the other 4 students dried the car by fanning them with paper. The person being the car rode on a scooter.
The hippos loved making a stop/go sign. We played the stop/go game in which the students followed the sign I held up during gym class. We also did transportation yoga. (cutting, letter/word recognition, following directions, gross motor)
The hippos also enjoyed playing with trucks in playdoh.
We used a squirt bottle with water to pretend to wash cars on the easel. We asked what the number was and we squirted that car. (number recognition/fine motor/building upper body)
We signed our names on clouds. (writing names)
Our sensory table was filled with water, pipettes, boats and bears!! ( sensory, fine motor)
We worked on environmental print with our Bingo game! The students recognized many of these signs. (i.e. stop, exit, Target, etc.)
On the carpet we played with hot wheels tracks and cars.
During our water vehicles day, the students used boats out of swim noodles, popsicle sticks and styrofoam triangles! The students added little bears to see if the boat would float or sink. (fine motor, following 2 step directions, making discoveries)
During group time we made predictions on which items (pencil, feather, spoon, penny, rock, ping pong ball) would float and sink! We discussed why some items floated while others sank. (participating as a member of a group, answering questions, making predictions)
After reading, Who Sank the Boat, we added the animals from the story to a styrofoam boat in water. We had to place many more farm animals in the boat but it did not sink! Finally, we added a lion and that did it! The boat sank!
We matched vehicle cards and hot wheels cards. (matching)
As a group we extended patterns using different vehicles.
On our last day of transportation, we sorted all the different vehicles, counted them and compared the numbers. (sorting, counting, comparing numbers)

Questions to Ask your Child:

1. What is your favorite land vehicle?

2. In the book, If I Built A Car, what was your favorite part on his car?(a pool, fish tank, food area, car turned into a boat, submarine, airplane)

3. What did we do with the soapy water, cars and a toothbrush? (we cleaned the cars)
4. What vehicle has 2 wheels and a motor? (motorcycle)

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

6. What has pretty colors and flys in the air? (hot air balloon)

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

Books we read:

If I Built a Car

Tough Trucks

My Truck is Stuck

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.

Play red stop/go light with the sign your child brought home. You can also use it outside when they are riding bikes.

Reminders

Thursday, 12/18, winter party at 11:00 in the hippo room-all are invited

Enjoy the pictures!