Unit 5:
Transportation
Week 1
Essential Question: How does my community use various modes of transportation?
Focus Questions: What kinds of transportation do I use and why?
Outcomes: I use transportation to get to pre-K and other places.
We use different types of transportation for different reasons.
Week 1
Story Time: Scroll down for the Books of the Week
Choose one book each day to focus on
Scroll down for the Books of the Week. Pause during the book reading to discuss what you see and ask your child to identify items either by labeling or pointing. Keep a list of what they were able to identify and share it with us!
After reading the books/watching the videos, MASK UP and go on a trip to the park or neighborhood walk, even if it's just around the block! Invite your child to find various modes of transportation in their environment, i.e. bus, car, van, truck. While walking ASK QUESTIONS and talk about vehicles you see, and sounds you hear, ie. beep, honk, vroom, zoom. Discuss colors, patterns, quantity, and shapes. Discuss what types of vehicles you see, what is similar or different? What did you notice about the vehicles? Were they large/ small, clean/dirty? Did they have a lot of windows?Did you notice vehicles using turn signals or hazard lights, why use those lights?
Literacy Activity:
Choose an activity to work on over a couple of days or choose one activity per day
Vocabulary words to target this week: Airplane, Bike, Bus, Car, Walk
Other words to consider: home, know, live, neighborhood, school, street
EXAGGERATE the target letters below and pair those sounds with the vocabulary words
(Focus Letters: J, K, L)
*Feel free to add your own words, the key is consistency. KEEP LANGUAGE GOING ALL DAY*
CLICK HERE FOR LETTER PRINTABLES
*Explore the links above: there are puzzles, tracing, painting, and play-dough mats to choose from. The goal is to have your child engage with letters of the alphabet and also to be able to identify the letters in the vocabulary words. Experiment with what your child shows the most interest in. Target fine motor skills, following directions and communication. Allow your child to use glue, safety scissors, paint, markers, stickers, etc. For play-dough and paint recipes, click on this link below or check our "Resources" page.
NO PRINTER? NO PROBLEM! DRAW LETTERS FOR YOUR CHILD TO TRACE WITH THEIR FINGERS, MARKER, ETC
STEAM:
Science/ Technology/ Engineering/ Art/ Math/ Science
Choose an activity to work on over a couple of days or choose one activity per day
Examples of questions to ask:
What happens when ___? How do you think that works? How could you change that?
What does that remind you of? What would happen if ___? Tell me more.
*Remember to narrate play and ask questions; label objects, animals, parts of things (i.e. wheel on car), colors, sizes, patterns, quantity.
*This is where you can use the items gathered during your park trip or neighborhood walk.
Counting Clouds: Let's target math and fine motor skills. Present your child with an airplane cut out on blue construction paper. Present your child with numerals written on index cards and a bowl of cotton balls. Assist your child to pick up and use pincer grasp to place corresponding cotton balls (clouds) on paper. Count out loud with your child using 1:1 correspondence. As a challenge, have your child use oversized tweezers or tongs to pick up and place cotton balls.
Painting Toys: Using vehicle toys (i.e. car, bus, train) and water-based paint, allow your child to explore vehicles with this process art activity. To increase focus and receptive/ expressive identification, request your child to paint specific parts of the vehicle using specific colors, i.e. "paint the door green". Talk about the parts of the vehicles (i.e. door, roof, window) and why your child might use these vehicles (i.e. take the bus to school). No paint, no problem! Refer to the "Resources" page for homemade paint recipes.
Marker Cars: Using construction paper or recycled box, markers, tape and vehicle toys, engage your child in an art activity where they can explore the movement of vehicles and colors. Request your child to use specific vehicles or colors and remember to narrate their actions and ask questions!
Name/ Letter Practice: Create letter "roads" for your child to drive their vehicles; remember to label letters with your child and have them point to and label the letters for you. Consider adding a photo of your child's face and talk about the beginning letter of their name; if you choose to create all letters of their name, remember to label all letters in order as your child "drives" their vehicle.
Fruit Cars: Using apples, grapes or bananas, assist your child to construct a fruit car. Focus on fine motor skills, following directions, imitations and identification, as well as counting. While eating, narrate the foods, flavors and textures.
Books of the Week
Once finished with the book, go through it again and PAUSE video to get a better look at pictures; assist your child to identify pictures (focus on labels, body parts, sounds, shapes, verbs, colors, quantity).
Use this as an opportunity to talk about vehicles, where we see them in the neighborhood, how and when we use vehicles. Discuss colors, shapes, quantity, and patterns. Pause the books at any time to answer questions, ASK questions, and point out important information. At the end of the book, talk about it some more. Ask WH questions (ie WHAT did we just read?/ WHAT did you see?)
Interested in reading some more? Check this out: Joan Snow PreK Library
Videos of the Week/ Music and Movement
When exploring these videos, use this as an opportunity to talk with your child about parts of their bodies and the function of body parts (ie touch/ feel with hands/ feet), EMOTIONS and following directions and imitations.
I've included some videos that target daily living skills; review these videos and talk about your daily routines, allow your child to practice and remember to narrate and model.
It's important to engage with your child, narrate videos and PAUSE video if you need to. Have your child perform emotions and movements with their bodies. Write down any reactions or words and share with us!
The goal here is to HAVE FUN! Making mistake and having a do-over is OKAY, it's all part of the learning process!