T is for Transportation

I don't know about you, but for my boys this was a BIG week! This years group of boys are everything cars. I think I have a bucket containing over 200 cars, and they still bring their own!!! 

Since I knew they loved cars, I wanted to captivate that interest and use it to best teach them. The most effective teachers are those who tune in to what they are interested in. 

Here is a peek into what we did this week:

Stoplight Cars

We found the initial idea here, but we tweaked it to our liking. :-)

We made some modifications as the week went on to make this more meaningful and cute. 

1. We cut out the tiny black circles (wheels) and cars.

2. The kiddos cut out the white circles and painted the cars. We always like to try new techniques for painting and this time we painted with these make up sponges. We did this earlier with our igloos, but wanted them to have freedom to paint over there cars without trying to make igloo bricks. 

3. Once everything was cut and dry, the kiddos glued their cars in stoplight order on the black paper. 

Didn't they turn out cute?

I always like to add small touches to our rooms decor based on the theme, especially in the art center. They loved looking/reading these signs. These came with our curriculum from Lakeshore.

Technology

I was so proud of my quick thinking. Each teacher has his/her own iPad mini for the class. There are limited ways I can use a single iPad in a classroom of 3 and 4 year olds. In our wonderful curriculum we had a transportation listening game. Instead of putting the CD in a CD Player, I downloaded the CD to my computer and made a special playlist. Then I transferred it to the iPad. I then placed it on the table. They were not allowed to touch because I didn't want it to stop. They listened to the different transportation sounds and circled the matching type of transportation on their cards. It worked great and I can't wait to come up with more listening centers using our classroom iPad.

Hot Wheel Board Game

I have realized that most preschoolers do not know how to play games. I forget that such a "simple" skill in my mind still needs to be taught. I found this great board game through Scholastic Book Club. It was only $3!!!!! It was a hit and the best part is that it grows with them as they get older. :-) Differentiation at its best!

To find more ideas visit my pinterest page.