Join us as we fly through 35 of the best transportation preschool activities. Along the road, you'll discover everything from craft activities to construction challenges. So buckle up and let the journey begin!
1. Model Railways
Model railways are a traditional favorite amongst preschool students and teachers. They develop cognitive problem-solving as children have to figure out how to fit pieces of the track together. They also allow students to re-enact scenarios from daily life, which helps them make sense of the world around them.
Learn more: Old Tracks New Tricks
2. Car Ramps
Building ramps for cars is another fun construction activity that kids love. All you need are some cars, planks of wood and some building blocks. Kids can experiment and observe what happens when they elevate the ramps to different heights and angles.
Learn more: Pinterest
3. Water Table Boat Play
Perfect for a summer's day. Fill your water tray and set sail. Using a variety of different shapes of boats, children can explore how they float upon the water. If you don't have a collection of toy boats, then why not encourage your kids to build their own out of lego.
Learn more: Primary Treasure Chest
4. Build a Boat STEM challenge
A build-a-boat challenge develops STEM skills and is also great fun. Provide your students with junk, recycled materials, craft sticks, and whatever else you can get your hands on. Then leave it up to them to create their own vessel. Finally, head to the water table and test out their designs.
Learn more: Miniature Masterminds
5. Create your own Road Map
Become town planners for the day and create your own road map which children can then use to play with cars. You can use a large piece of paper to map out your own town or chalk it to the playground floor.
Learn more: A Girl and a Glue Gun
6. Mark Making with Cars
Encourage early writing and mark-making with this transportation-themed activity. Simply tape some pens or crayons to some toy cars. Place a larger piece of paper on the ground and as children push the cars along the paper they will begin to make marks. They may even be encouraged to start writing names and familiar words.
Learn more: Pinterest
7. Track Painting
Another mark-making activity that encourages early writing in preschools, is this track painting activity. You can use toy cars, trains, or any other mode of transportation you may have to lie in the toy box. Kids will ride the vehicle through a tray of paint and race it across some paper, forming interesting marks and tracks.
Learn more: Play to Learn Preschool
8. Wheels on the Bus
This transportation-themed song is a classroom classic. It helps develop language and is great fun to add actions to. Your preschoolers might even enjoy creating their own verse based on their own experiences of riding on a bus.
Learn more: Super Simple Songs - Kids Songs
9. Bus Stop - Addition and Subtraction
Introduce the concept of addition and subtraction by playing bus stop. When the bus stops at the bus stop, passengers get on and off. You can use a toy bus or make your own class bus using chairs or a large cardboard box. Giving Math a real-life context is important for young learners.
Learn more: Board Hoarders
10. Tens Frame Bus
Practice counting and explore the number 10 with these Bus Tens Frames. You can use counters or peg people to represent the passengers. Ask your students to count out a number of passengers and explore how many more to make 10.
Learn more: Sparkle Box
11. Land, Sea, or Air
Combine a transportation theme with an early maths objective. Get your hands on a variety of transportation vehicles (or photos of different vehicles) and 3 large hoops. Ask your students to sort the vehicles into land, sea, or air categories. This will develop their ability to sort objects and also test their transport knowledge.
Learn more: Twinkl
12. Transport Survey
Head to your local streets and carry out a transport survey. Take a walk around the block and ask your students can tally how many trucks, cars, trains, or planes they spot. Or you could divide them into groups and ask them to count a particular color of the car. Back in the classroom you can look at the data and see which color cars are the most popular.
Learn more: Sparkle Box
13. Transport Spotting
How many different modes of transportation can your students spot? Provide them with a tick list to check off their sightings. You could do this as a field trip or homework activity and the children could take photos of the vehicles they spot. Back at school, they can compare their discoveries, and you can share their photos on a transportation-themed display board.
Learn more: Craftulate
14. CARboard Craft
You can’t beat a cardboard box when it comes to creating fun, and there are plenty of ways to your old cardboard boxes during a preschool transportation theme. Create cars, bus road signs, and more!
Learn more: Krokotak
15. Road Sign I-Spy
Spotting different road signs and exploring their meanings is great fun, and it helps to encourage young learners to take notice of their environment. Recognizing signs and symbols and giving them meaning is the first step before letter recognition and reading.
Learn more: Trip Savvy
16. Design your own Road Signs
Activities for preschoolers that encourage drawing and writing are important as they help to develop motor skills. This activity involves making their own road signs. You can also give the activity a mathematical link by exploring different shapes and numbers that might be found on traffic signs.
Learn more: Twinkl
17. Car Park Alphabet
Create a parking lot with spaces labeled in capital letters. Then label toy cars with lower case letters. Children must match the upper and lower case letters and park the cars in the correct parking bay.
Learn more: Nurture Store
18. Parking Lot Number Recognition
This is a car-themed number recognition game that helps familiarize preschoolers with written numbers. Create a numbered parking lot and number your toy cars. As children play, they will be subtly exposed to numbers and develop their number recognition.
Learn more: Housing a Forest
19. Chalk a Maze
Challenge your kids' spatial skills with this fun activity. Chalk a maze onto the playground floor and challenge your student to find their way out. You can do this small scale using toy cars, or on a larger scale using bikes and trikes.
Learn more: Hands on as we Grow
20. Playground Highway
Chalk, tape or paint a road system onto the ground outside for your preschoolers to ride their bikes or scooters around. You can add road signs, traffic lights, tunnels, or bridges. You might even like to set up a role play area nearby where kids can play at being traffic cops.
Learn more: Twinkl
21. Car Wash
Preschoolers love any form of water play, so create a car wash in your schoolyard. Your kids can ride the bikes and scooters to the car wash for a weekly clean. Activities like this are great for motor development.
Learn more: Crafty Morning
22. Transportation Themed Fundraiser
23. Transport Bingo
Lotto games are a good way to develop vocabulary at the start of a topic or theme. This bingo stamping game has a transportation theme.
Learn more: Homeschool share
24. Build a Bus Role Play
Use your classroom chairs or other resources to build a bus, and role-play a bus journey scenario. Roleplay is important in developing language amongst preschoolers, plus it is great fun. To enhance the scenario, you can create bus tickets and add dress-up costumes.
Learn more: Sparkle Box
25. Exploring Friction with Car Ramps
This science activity is great for preschoolers and introduces them to the idea of friction. They can also practice plenty of descriptive language relating to speed and texture.
Learn more: Pre-K Pages
26. Egg Box Trains
This cute craft activity makes the most of your recycled egg boxes and is easy for preschoolers to take part in.
Learn more: Debbie Greenberg
27. Water Chute Boats
Using guttering and pipes, children can build water chutes for toy boats. Combining play and exploration is key to early science learning.
Learn more: TTS Resources
28. Outdoor Play with Tires
Old tires are a fun and inexpensive addition to the schoolyard. Children can build using them, or they might enjoy rolling them along the ground. They also make comfy chairs for an outdoor classroom.
Learn more: The Empowered Educator Online
29. Remote Control Vehicles
30. Space Transportation
Transportation in outer space is also a fun route to take, and there are plenty of activities for preschoolers. They could design a space rocket using recycled materials for a start.
Learn more: The Inspiration Edit
31. Fine Motor Transport Threading
Now for a fine motor activity with a transport theme. These transportation-themed templates can be printed out and used in class to develop motor skills. Use a shoelace or some thread and a large sewing needle to weave in and out.
Learn more: Twinkl
32. Emergency Vehicles
Kids love learning about emergency services, so why not explore emergency vehicles too. These picture cards are a great addition to decorating a class poster board.
Learn more: Sparkle Box
33. Old and New Transportation
Exploring old modes of transportation is an interesting topic, and preschoolers will develop their observation skills as they compare the similarities and differences between modern-day transportation and vehicles from days gone by.
Learn more: Sparkle Box
34. Paper Airplanes
Don't forget air transportation! Folding paper planes is an age-old favorite. Kids enjoy making them, and seeing whose plane flies the furthest across the playground is a great way to introduce the topic of measure.
Learn more: Foldable Flight
35. Airport Small World Play
Set up a small world airport complete with a textured runway and landing lights. It's a playful, sensory experience that could be introduced to the classroom before a school break to prepare kids for trips they may be taking soon.
Learn more: Fairy Poppins
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