ActivitiesGrade SchoolKindergartnersPreschoolersToddlers42 Comments
Transportation activities for preschoolers, plus vehicle crafts to make and even our favorite books for kids that love things that go!
I don’t know about you, but all my boys can play with are things that go… you know… things with wheels! Part of the activities planner I do each week, is writing down what the kids are currently interested in. It always has some sort of transportation listed.
I’m not saying its “a boy thing” because I know girls like their fair share of ‘things that go’ too. But check out the Pinterest boards that I found that have everything for boys!
It seems that if I add a vehicle of some sort to an activity, my preschoolers are much more interested and excited to take part of the activity, whether it’s a craft, art or learning activity. They’re much more into it.
So, I’ve found a few ideas to add transportation to our activities.
35 Transportation Vehicle Activities for Preschoolers who Love ‘Things that Go!’
Quite a few that use the vehicles that you already got. And even some that create the vehicles for an activity.
And I also couldn’t leave you without adding in quite a few of our favorite transportation books. They all happen to have vehicles in them (of course!).
So, for the avid vehicle loving preschoolers, here are some activities to get them interested. And maybe give their motors a break (and your ears a relief) for a while.
Our favorite fun transportation vehicles activities for preschoolers!
Including crafts and books for the vehicle loving kid!
Using Vehicles You Already Have for Transportation Activities for Preschoolers:
- Haul corn. Corn kernels and vehicles. Let the hauling begin.
- Tape a maze on your floor and add some numbers. Have your child drive and count their way through the maze.
- Draw out a big maze on the driveway and drive through it!
- Set out some flour to explore and play with. Before long the vehicles will be added in for some hauling and track making, too!
- Build a city of blocks and drive through it.
- Stack block towers, but all the blocks with a dump truck or semi. Count the towers as you’re building them!
- Paint with Vehicles! Add some trucks, tractors, cars, whatever vehicles you have to some paint and paper and compare the tracks that they make! (Make it bigger and take it outside!)
- Make a learning activity for counting with grain bins and tractors. Use marshmallows to haul and count!
- Simply add a few vehicles to some play dough and make a construction site. Here is my favorite way of how to make homemade play dough!
- Be inspired by a favorite book about vehicles and act it out! (such as The Little Blue Truck book. See more vehicle books that we love below!)
- Reuse bubble wrap for a road. Drive some big vehicles on it to hear the Pop!
- Make and indoor activity course and use a big vehicle to take through the course as they do their activities.
- Put together an ice investigation to see if salt or sand makes the ice less slippery for vehicles driving on it.
- Make a ramp from a cardboard box and test out how the cars and trucks make it down.
- Use wagons, or semi trailers, or even dump trucks and experiment to see how much water each vehicle holds.
- Convince your child to clean up! Have a car wash for the toy vehicles – with a learning twist!
- Tape out a road on the floor and drive, drive, drive!
- Use printables to sort your own emergency vehicles! – Taming the Goblin
- A color coded parking lot to match your own toy vehicles to. – A Happy Wanderer
- A very fun sensory activity, a shaving cream car wash. – Lessons Learnt Journal
- Construction sensory activity with construction vehicles and beans. – Frugal Fun 4 Boys and Girls
- Use a box to extend train play, make The Sports Enough Tunnel. – Celebrate Every Day With Me
- Another sensory activity that might be better than the sandbox, cloud dough with vehicles. – Capturing Parenthood.
- Counting with trucks! Use dump trucks to see how many dominoes it can hold then count them! – Inspiration Laboratories
- Monster Smash! Add crayons and monster trucks to a cardboard box and create your own Monster rally arena! – Small Potatoes
Making Your Own Vehicles for Transportation Activities for Preschoolers:
- Create a train with a recycled egg carton and a pipe cleaner.
- Hand over a cardboard box to the kids and see what kind of vehicle they can make with it.
- Dive into your child’s interests and make a book. Head to the local dealerships and get their catalogs!
- Count semis! Or dump trucks, or other vehicles while on a road trip.
- Create a busy town, complete with vehicle ‘puppets’ to drive along the road. – The Art Annex
- Put the kids to ‘work’ with a pretend car wash using washable markers and craft foam. – Inner Child Fun
- Create a dump truck out of egg cartons. – DLTK’s Kids
- Make a picture of a truck out of drinking straws. – No Time for Flash Cards
- Put together a train with your chairs and invite your friends or stuffed animals to ride in the train cars! – Toddler Approved.
- Sort toys in homemade train cars of shoe boxes, by letter sounds! – Think Magnet
Download FREE Week of Activities for Preschoolers! (3-5 year olds)
Our Favorite Transportation Vehicle Books for Preschoolers:
Almost every book that we read very regularly has to do with vehicles too. Mostly tractors and trucks, but a few trains in there too.
First of all, I ran across this list of books from Slimy Bookworm that is geared towards boys, but almost every one on there is about a vehicle.
I love to add reading vehicle books to my preschoolers after a transportation activity!
Here’s Our 10 Favorite Transportation Books:
*The following links are affiliate links, which means a small percentage of any purchase you make after clicking through will help support hands on : as we grow, at absolutely no additional cost to you.
- Flip Flap Farm (Usborne Flip Flap Board Books), by Katie Daynes
- Thomas the the Magic Railroad : Little Engines Can Do Big Things, by Britt Allcroft
- The Little Book of Farmyard Tales (Farmyard Tales Readers), by Heather Amery
- Building Opposites (Sparkle Fun!)
- Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go
- Little Blue Truck Board Book, by Alice Schlerte
- Big Board First 100 Machines (Bright Baby), by Roger Priddy
- I Drive a Snowplow (Working Wheels), by Sarah Bridges
- That’s Not My Train (Usborne Touchy-Feely Books), by Fiona Watt
- A Year at a Construction Site (Time Goes By), by Nicholas Harris (not one we own, but a favorite from the library.)
Are your kids stuck on things that go?
Please tell me my kids aren’t the only ones…
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Zoe Bickmore says
Hello my name is Zoe and I teach preschool
Stephanie Bautista says
Fantastic ideas
Google Maps Street View says
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Cindy says
My preschoolers will love the little dump trucks with flour. That ideas has some great possibilities…
Cindy says
I want to try the flour with little dump trucks. My preschoolers will love that! It has some great possibilities…
Betsie says
I’m a mom of a “things that go” obsessed 2 year old and a Pinterest addict this is the best list I found! And I found many! Thanks.
Jamie Reimer says
So awesome to hear that Betsie! Glad you found some good things!
Sharon Boatwright says
I appreciate the fact you put this website up. It helps me to plan productive activities for the children.
OneMommy says
You are definitely not the only one! My son’s first word was car. Literally. Not momma, nope, car came first!
Pinning!!
Sara says
Thanks for the list! My 17 month old is slightly obsessed with trucks too! We play garbage truck/recycle truck with a bag of pom poms and his Little People house. We set out (ok, mostly I do the setting out) “garbage” pom poms by the house and my son pushes the truck to the house to collect the garbage.
Jayne Tainsh says
What a great list of ideas,can’t wait to use for my classroom.cant wait till the fun starts.
Ingrid45 says
I am so excited…my grandsons and I are going to have such fun – cant wait to get started – thank you so much!
BMW service with repair Winnetka says
Wow these all 35 vehicle activities are really very amazing and I am so impressed to reading these, actually these types of interesting things are better than other and I know other visitors are definitely like this blog, so thanks for posting this.
OneMommy says
So excited I found this on Pinterest! My son LOVES anything with wheels! Yes, all his books in his room are about vehicles of some type, and all his toys have wheels pretty much.
He refused to talk about patterns until I made a bunch of cars in diffent colors so we could do patterns with car pictures.
heather says
such a great list! thanks for including our color coded parking! we’re looking forward to doing many of the activities you listed :)
Becky @ Rub Some Dirt On It says
A great list!! Thanks for featuring my dump truck on there! :)
Melissa @ The Chocolate Muffin Tree says
Yay, I can finally see your post! Wonderful ideas. You are always the master of Round-ups!
My nephew was obsessed with cars when he was little and would have loved these activities!
Can’t wait to try some ideas with C.
Liz says
My son was like this – although a bit better now!! Last year he played with his diggers in the garden (soil) a lot – sometimes just moving soil – sometimes using the diggers and trailers instead of a bucket and spade for gardening. Same for weeding the gravel! We also took trucks on nature walks, took his combine with us to watch the fields being harvested so he could watch and then replay, picked a few sheafs of wheat and put it in a sensory tray with soil and stones. My younger girl likes cars – but not with the same passion as her brother ;)
Gina says
What an awesome list! We have tons of cars and trucks littering our living room. I can’t wait to try something new with them. :)
the monko says
Wow what a great list. Thanks for including us. I’ll be sure to check out the rest and find some new activities to feed goblin’s vehicle obsession
Rashmie @ Mommy Labs says
Very useful and creative ideas, Jamie. Though I have a girl, she has a fair amount of passion for cars, planes and the like. Will save this….
Jamie says
I know girls like their vehicles too! :)
Ness @ One Perfect Day says
Such a fantastic post! Pinning this as I’ll b referring to it often, I’m sure!
Eddie - The Usual Mayhem says
I love this list! I’m going to break out the bubble wrap right now. :)
Jamie says
haha! Its fun!!!
JDaniel4's Mom says
What an awesome list! I love all the wonderful ways you have incorporated cars into learning and exploring.
Crazed in the Kitchen says
Love this! We have soooo many cars and trucks in our house–it’s great to get some ideas for them! Thank you!
Debs - Learn with Play @ home says
That was a fabulous list! I’ll be pinning this to remember it. Thankyou :D
Trisha @ Inspiration Laboratories says
My son loves all vehicles – cars, trucks, trains, planes… Thanks for a great list of ideas to always keep the play new and exciting!
Jen Fischer says
What a great list. Some of the books I have known about, but kind of have forgotten about so I haven’t gotten them for my son who is obsessed with things that go!!!
The Iowa Farmer's Wife says
What a great list!!! For a great book about fun cars check out Cars Galore! Sweet P LOVES it and it has great rhymes and great pictures. Pinning this because while Sweet P really likes cars, I’m sure her brother will LOVE them!
Jamie says
I’m gonna check out that book for a birthday! Awesome, thanks for the suggestion!