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During the month of September our theme is All Things Transportation! Today I want to share many different ways that I bring our transportation theme into my kindergarten classroom.
Kids love machines – big or small – they just love them. They love the noises and sights. As a boy mom I am here to tell you that transportation related noises were the first sounds my sons used. So its no surprise that students love our month focused on all things transportation! Today I want to share how I integrate our theme across all subjects and give you some ideas for transportation related activities in your classroom.
Transportation Across the Subject Areas
Cross-curricular themes is what we use in my classroom. What exactly does that mean? Well, that just means that when we study our theme (transportation, in this case) we don’t just study it during science. Although science and the concepts of motion is where the transportation theme is based, we also use this theme to plan lessons in all other subject areas too. This helps the students to connect their learning to one consistent topic. It also gives them many opportunities to practice using theme related vocabulary in their speaking, reading and writing.
Here’s how the transportation theme breaks down:
- Science – the study of how things move
- Literature – books related to transportation are used each week to teach reading and phonics skills
- Social Studies – we learn about community related jobs that have to do with transportation
- Math – we use themed activities to reinforce and practice math skills
- Writing – we do some creative and expository writing based on this theme
Science
Science is the primary subject area that our transportation theme is based on. We begin exploring the science concepts of force and motion (part of the physical science standards) with our transportation unit. During our science time we focus on learning about movement and motion, what causes motion and how things move on land, in the air, and in the water. I’m sure you can see how easy it is to connect all of these types of movement to transportation. We also spend some time learning about what causes motion, like engines.
Here are some science related resources and activities:
Vocabulary is an important part of any science lesson. I love these FREE transportation themed word cards from PreKinders.com! You can grab your set too! They make a great addition to any anchor chart, word wall, or science bulletin board.
This anchor chart is also a great one. I love creating anchor charts with my students and displaying them in the classroom. By creating them together the students remember the process and the lesson better. I teach my students that they can always refer back to the anchor charts in the classroom to help them too! This is a great anchor chart I found on Pinterest. I don’t know the original creator – but it is an excellent example. I allow my students to come up with the transportation examples for each section.
This is another wonderful anchor chart in the form of a K-W-L chart. If you are not familiar with these, the K-W-L chart is a way to assessing prior knowledge, asking questions and assessing what is learned at the end. At the very beginning of the unit the K is filled in with what the students KNOW about the topic. Then we ask the question “WHAT do you WANT to learn about the topic?” and fill in the W with their answers. At the end of the unit we add the new things we have LEARNED to the L section. It is a wonderful tool to get your students thinking! This K-W-L anchor chart from Learning with Mrs. Langley is a great example.
I also add in a a couple of hands-on science and STEM activities related to motion and transportation. This balloon rocket I found at Happy Brown House is always a favorite!
We also love making and testing boats made from tin foil. You can find all the details from Messy Little Monster.
Literature / Read Aloud
There are lots of great picture books related to transportation. I choose the books I want to use based on the reading skills I am teaching. If we are working on rhyming, then I will choose a transportation themed book that some good rhyming sections or words. If we are working on the sight word ‘little’ then I will choose a book where this word is prominent. Here are some of my favorite transportation books.
These are just a few of the many wonderful transportation related books available. In fact, if you wanted to connect your unit to an author study too, you could do an entire series by Donald Crews. Not only does he had Freight Train shown above, but he also has books on a school bus, truck, a ship and more!
Writing
I love to have my students write about things they are learning. Not only does this give them a good starting point when it comes to ideas, but it also gives them an authentic opportunity to practice vocabulary and explain concepts. One of my favorite writing activities is based on this book:
After reading the book If I Built a Car, the students write about the car they would build. Not only does this allow them to use their creativity but its a lot of fun! Another great thing about this book is that the writing prompt can be more general – “If I built a __________ (any type of transportation).” It makes a great und of the unit activity this way.
This is also a wonderful unit for learning to write facts. Students can choose a mode of transportation and do an expository writing using facts. Early in the year and your students are not quite ready for that, a simpler labeling activity works too! Students can draw a type of transportation and then label what they drew.
Remember those vocabulary word cards from the science section, well they make a great Write the Room activity too. Just post them around the room and have students search for the cards. When they find one, they can write the word and draw a picture.
Reading
I also love incorporating our transportation theme into the student’s reading time. This is different from the literature time which is when I teach and model reading skills with read aloud. However, the students also love reading on their own. Here’s a perfect emergent reader that ties in transportation and color words from Kidsparkz.
Here’s another perfect emergent reader with a transportation theme. This one focuses on the sight words ‘I’, ‘like’, and ‘the’ along with transportation related vocabulary. If you do your transportation unit at the beginning of the school year like I do then this book from 3 Dinosaurs is just right.
Social Studies
Kindergarten social studies standards are usually tied closely with the concept of community. So learning about community helpers related to the transportation industry is a great place to start! We focus on the pilot, engineer and driver. The students love learning about these jobs and how they help the people in the community. After learning about these jobs, I love adding some costumes and props to our dramatic play area. If you are looking for some amazing dramatic play ideas, just check out these Pinterest ideas for transportation themed dramatic play! You’ll find ideas for airports, train stations, auto shops and more!
As part of our social studies time, we also have the wonderful opportunity to learn about the history of transportation with an amazing field trip to the automobile museum. There are some wonderful museums related to transportation and many of them are small, volunteer run and perfect for field trips!
Any time you can connect a field trip to learning it really helps the concepts come to life.
Math
So I’ll be the first to admit that connecting some of our themes to math can be difficult because math concepts are just so math specific. But we love using the theme to practice our math skills. Right now we are working on shapes and patterns. I put together these fun pattern block shape puzzles with a transportation theme for our math centers. The students love putting together the puzzles and then counting the shapes.
We have also been learning about identifying and creating patterns. The class loves making patterns together. As a practice activity I created the pattern truck! The class is loving the chance to build and create their own patterns. Your students can do this too! Just click on the image below to grab your free copy of the pattern truck!
There are so many more ways to connect transportation to math practice. Here’s just a few more:
Here’s some wonderful free activities that have to do with counting sets to 10! These great match centers are from Life Over C’s.
This teen number train from Tot Schooling is great for number identification and using ten frames to count sets.
Other Fun Transportation Activities
There are soooo many amazing activities out there. Just hop over to Pinterest and type in “kindergarten transportation unit” and you will be amazed. Here’s a couple more great activities I found. This first play dough activity from Preschool Play and Learn is perfect for a fine motor center.
And check out these AMAZING sensory bin ideas for transportation! I can’t wait to put these together for my classroom! Thanks Fantastic Fun and Learning!
I hope you found some new ideas for your transportation theme unit. Whether you are starting from scratch or just looking for some new activities there’s plenty here!