Preparation:

1. Draw a parking lot on a piece of paper, with spaces in between wide enough for a toy car to fit. You can see that mine is VERY simple.

2. In each space, write a skill you are working on: numbers, letters, colors, sight words, math facts, etc.

Play:

Call out a number, letter, etc. Have your child drive the toy car into the correct parking space. A HUGE hit with little boys!!

We interrupt our transportation ideas to share with you a fabulous find: these adorable tin mailboxes! Found at the Dollar Spot at Target. Yes, you read that right. ONE DOLLAR!! I found some near the beginning of the month–I snagged the last 3. Then, on a trip there today, they had completely restocked so we picked up a couple more. They had them in red and white, bright pink and a turquoise blue. And yes, the flag goes up and down like a real mailbox!

We decorated ours with Valentine-themed stickers, but my first idea was to use stickers or vinyl to write each person’s name. My kids wanted to place them outside their bedrooms. We have enjoyed leaving little notes, treats, or other surprises for our family members to find! I even bought cute paper and stickers to make it extra special. What a fun way to show love for Valentine’s Day! (and this teacher-mom can’t help but get excited about all the learning and writing and reading that is taking place!)

Have you done mailboxes before? What would you leave inside?

Preparation:

1. Draw some trucks on colored paper. Cut out. Laminate for durability, optional.

2. Write one letter you are learning on each truck. I chose to do uppercase letters.

3. Cut out small circles, 2 for each truck. I did mine on brown. These will be the wheels for the trucks.

4. Write the corresponding lowercase letter on one wheel.

5. Find a picture with each beginning sound and glue onto the other wheel.

Play:

1. Lay out all the trucks and wheels.

2. Have your child find the wheels that match each truck: the lowercase letter and matching picture. Place the matching wheels on each truck.

**You could do this with other skills, as well. When I taught 1st grade, I did contractions. I wrote the contraction on each truck and the words in the contraction for each wheel (ex. “can’t” on the truck; “can” and “not” on the wheels).

My son beaming at the train show

What field trips have you done that teach about transportation?

This week, I will be focusing on transportation ideas. If your children are anything like mine, they are fascincated by “things that go.” Today, I will share a fun twist on painting with a transportation theme! This is a great one for a rainy day, or a day like mine, where my kids could not get along! Sometimes you just need to pull out something different!

completed by 2-year-old

supplies

paint

toy cars (try to find cars that have different textures on the wheels)

paper

paper plates for putting the paint on

Activity:

1. Put one color of paint on each paper plate.

2. Cover your children with a paint shirt and give them each a piece of paper. I like to tape their papers down so they don’t move around.

rolling car in paint

rolling car on paper

4. Repeat with a different car and possibly different colors. I try to choose cars that have different wheel designs so you get different textures on the papers.

completed by 5-year-old

My favorite part of this project is that it is so open-ended!! My kids did about 3 each, and every single one was different! LOVE it!

(We made these into placemats for grandparents and aunts/uncles when my son was about a year old. They loved them!)

Footprint Penguin Plate by Handprint and Footprint Art

Penguin Bowling by Crafts ‘n Things for Children (You’ll have to scroll down a bit to find it. This is by the same lady mentioned above; she’s super creative!)

Paper Bag Penguins by Pocketful of Posies (she has a whole bunch of penguin ideas on this post)

How to draw a penguin by My Montessori Journey

Penguin Life Cycle also by My Montessori Journey

Tissue Tube Penguin by Kid Craft Magazine

Penguin ABC dot-to-dot

Penguin ABC Hunt

Without You by Sarah Weeks

This is a book about the life of the emperor penguin. The words are the lyrics to a song (CD included), but the pictures tell the real story. This book leads to lots of discussion about penguins. For example, did you know that the daddy penguin watches the egg while the mommy looks for food?

For penguin activities to go with this book, go here.

Pretend to be a penguin! Here are some ideas:

1. Waddle

2. Huddle together in a group for warmth

3. Slide on tummy

4. Put a ball between your feet, like an egg, and try to waddle

5. Any other ideas?

This is fun activity to reinforce counting.

Make a bunch of penguins (I found a clipart pattern I liked on-line and printed it off). Put a number on each of the penguin’s tummies.

Provide a bowl of goldfish. Your child’s job is to “feed” the penguins by counting out the corresponding number of goldfish. When completed, they can help the penguins eat the fish! My children LOVE this!

I didn’t have goldfish in my cupboard last year, but the balls worked great, too. Also, I like the penguins colored. Just another version of the same idea:

I LOVE open-ended art projects! I love to watch the creative process that goes through each child’s head as they create what they’re imagining. I love watching as they add more to the project as they talk with others or as they design. It’s really quite an amazing thing!

supplies

Yesterday, I provided black, orange, and white construction paper; some glue, scissors, and crayons; and told my children to create a penguin. I kept our penguin books on the table with us for them to look at, and we probably spent the next hour designing a penguin family. We added eggs to their feet (my son’s is cracked). My daughter made “Happy Feet” as her baby penguin that came out of her egg. My son added a fish to his penguin’s mouth. We added feathers for our macaroni penguins. So creative! So fun! And the pride… they are so PROUD of their work!

Our penguin family (the one on the far right is a snowman)

created by 6-year-old

created by 3-year-old (sorry, it's kinda falling over in this picture)

"Happy Feet" created by 3-year-old

This was definitely a very fun project–for all of us, me included! And the quality time we spent together cannot be traded!

Other “design-a-” activities we have done:

Design-a-turkey

Design-a teddy bear

Design-a-gingerbread man