Welcome to Week #4 – Cars & Trains!
Download and print the activity calendar for Week #4 from the pink button below. Hanging the calendar outline on the refrigerator (if magnets don’t work, use cute tape for the fridge!) or in a plastic page protector makes it to know what’s on the schedule each day!
Day 1
Train Names: Cut a locomotive train car out of construction paper or card stock. Cut squares out of paper to act as additional train cars. Add circles for wheels and add them to the train car squares. Write one letter of your preschooler’s name on each square train car. Mix them up and have your preschooler build the name train by adding each square train car in the correct order to the locomotive. Identify the letter and possibly the letter sound as the letters are being added to the train. Work on first and last names. If your preschooler does not know the letters in his/her name yet, create the entire train and square train cars. Write each letter on a post-it note to stick on the matching train car.
Fill the Truck: Print the truck page. Gather small rocks or pebbles OR use play dough to for this activity. Give your preschooler a number 1-20 (depending on learning level). Your preschooler will add that many rocks or pretend play dough rocks to the back of the truck counting one at a time. Clear the truck. Give another number and add the rocks again. If using play dough, roll balls of play dough to use as rocks. Practice addition and subtraction skills too!
Building Tunnels: Cut strips lengthwise of colored paper. Attach one side of the piece of paper (what is now the shorter side) to the floor with painter’s tape or tape that will not damage the floor. Create a tunnel with the paper making sure that cars can go under and fit through with ease. Tape the other side of the tunnel to the floor. Add tunnels all over the floor in a fun path. Drive small toy cars through the tunnels. For added practice, write letters on the tunnels and name the letters as the car drives through!
Day 2
Car Letters: Using pieces of painter’s tape, create large alphabet letters on the floor. Gather all of the toy cars you can find. Practice letter formation while driving the cars down the lines of the letter working from top to bottom and left to right. Build the letters with the cars, adding one car to the tape line of the letter at a time. Tape pieces of paper to the cars with the same tape letters, and “park” the cars on the matching letter.
Bus Stop Numbers: Print the bus stop signs and recording sheet or easily create your own by cutting buses out of yellow paper. Add a number or number word to each but stop sign. Use numbers that your preschooler needs extra help on. That could be the numbers 11-20 if the lower numbers have been mastered. Or you can even write the 10s up to 100 on the bus stop signs. Hang the bus stop signs around the room. Add the recording sheet to a clipboard. Drive your pretend bus around from stop to stop, writing the numbers on the recording sheet at each stop!
Stop & Go: Make a red stop sign and a green go sign or print the signs on red and green paper. Your preschooler can use a paper plate as a steering wheel to during this activity. Stand across the room from your preschooler. Hide the signs behind your back. Pull out one sign at a time. If the green go sign is show, your preschooler can start “driving” across the floor towards you. Show the red stop sign and your preschooler must stop driving and freeze! Keep switching the signs until your preschooler has driven across the room all the way over to you!
Day 3
Headlight Hunt: Print the cars page or create your own. Find a flashlight to use to play this game. Add uppercase or lowercase letters to the cars and hang them on the walls or hide them around the floor. Turn off the lights (or close the blinds or curtains), but don’t make it too dark. Walk around with the flashlight trying to find the cards. Pretend to be driving around the street in the dark and shine your headlights (the flashlight) at the cars to see them better. Name the letters as they are found!
LEGO Cars: Add a bunch of LEGO bricks to a tray or bowl. Find LEGO wheels to add to the collection of building bricks. Roll a die and identify the number. Choose that many LEGOs to add to your car. Start putting the bricks together to build a car. Roll again and add more bricks. Keep rolling until the car is built! Encourage adding details like a top, windows, doors, etc. to the car. Take the LEGO car outside to play with it and see if it rolls around. If LEGO bricks are not available, use blocks to build a car with.
Car Tracks Painting: Find a few toy cars to use for this creative art activity. Cars with different sized tires would be fun to use. Use a big poster board or construction paper to paint. Squirt washable tempera paint on to paper plates. Roll the cars through the paint a few times and then drive them around the paper, creating colorful tire marks!
Day 4
Play Dough Writing: Roll out play dough to make a flat area. On different small pieces of paper, write uppercase or lowercase letters or car and train themed words. Using a toothpick, chopstick, or popsicle stick, pick a piece of paper and write the letter or word on the play dough. Roll the play dough out to erase the letter or word and pick another piece of paper to write again!
Color Sorting Trains: Make a quick train out of colored papers to use as the train cars. Add black wheels to the pieces of paper. If you do not have colored paper, color the middle of the white paper with different colors OR write a different color word in the middle of each paper. Place the papers across the table or floor to resemble a train. Look around the room and find small objects and identify their colors. Sort the objects by color on the train cars. All green objects will go on the green piece of paper. All purple objects will go on the purple piece of paper…and so on. Count the total number of objects on each paper and find which color has the most and least.
Parking Practice: Race toy cars across the floor while trying to get them to stop and “park” in a certain spot! Mark the floor with a square made out of tape or a piece of paper taped down. Push the toy cars across the floor and let go to see where they stop and park. Try to use enough force (but not too much!) to get the cars to stop in the designated parking spot. Be careful not to bump another car out of the spot while racing and parking!
Day 5
Color the Picture: Print the page or draw a similar one to use. Give directions for your preschooler to follow to color the picture. For example, color the sun yellow, color the car in front of the truck blue, color one of the truck’s wheels black and one red, etc. Use number skills, multi-step directions, and positional words when giving coloring directions. Play again and have your preschooler give you the directions as you color the picture!
Shape Cars: Cut pieces of construction paper or cardstock up into different shapes and sizes. Use different colored paper or bring out the crayons and markers to color the pieces. Start by finding a shape to use as the main part of the car. Add shapes for wheels, windows, lights, doors, bumper, etc. to add fun detail to the car. Glue all of the shapes together and let dry!
Save the Car: Place a toy car in a small plastic bowl. Add water to the bowl to cover the car and place it in the freezer. When frozen, pop the car and the ice out of the bowl and place it on a tray. Fill a cup or jar with water. Use a medicine syringe or dropper to drip water on the ice over and over again. Keep dripping the water on the ice until the car is free!
Preschoolers are loving the activities in Week #4!
Hopefully you are loving the Preschool on the Go activities and that you are feeling more confident about setting up learning fun for your preschooler. Don’t forget, if you are ever looking for more in-depth printable options, you can check out these products:
The feedback from parents have been extremely positive about the ease of using Preschool on the Go at home. Please email with any questions!
Grab the printable outline for Week #4 from the pink button!
Hang it on your refrigerator so you can glance up at it to see what is planned each day. Keep the digital copy available to quickly click to access this page at any point for details about the activities.
You can access all of the Preschool on the Go activities from the main page!
Email me at nicole@modernpreschool.com if you need to!