If you have little boys in your house, chances are you have quite the collection of toy cars. There are so many ways you can use these to teach your child! Some of these activities are more structured, while others are all about free play. Both types are necessary for learning!
Letter A: Addition in lines, Alphabet parking lot matching uppercase and lowercase (pictured above)
Letter B: Bigger or Smaller? – put out two cars and have your child point to the bigger or smaller one, Bubble Wrap Road
Letter C: Color Sorting – you can be as detailed as making a graph like in this post, or simply make piles of colors, Color Matching
Letter D: Draw with Cars (pictured above), Drive on Dotted Lines (print out prewriting pages like these and have your child drive the car on the lines), Dump Truck Counting
Letter E: Emergency Vehicle Number Hunt Game (pictured above)
Letter F: Which car goes the Farthest? Set up a ramp and a number line like this post to see.
Letter G: Graphing Cars by traits (pictured above) – color, size, type of vehicle, do they have faces like in the Cars movies or not, etc.; activities to go along with reading Go Dog, Go!
Letter H: How Many Vehicles Will Fit In A Container? – grab several different sized containers from around your house and guess, How Many Vehicles Will Weigh 1 Pound? (pictured above, if you have a scale available)
Letter I: Measure by Inches – use a ruler to measure vehicles big and small, or try Icy Car Rescue for some science fun.
Letter J: Learn through play with some Jean roads, pictured above
Letter K: Know Your Name
Letter L: Line Them Up (pictured above) – all of my children have done this for fun, and they’re working on their motor skills while they play.
Letter M: Matching – by color, type of vehicle, or by putting letter or number labels on top; Music Theory Game (pictured above)
Letter N: Nonstandard Measuring – measure vehicles with different objects like paper clips or marshmallows, OR measure different objects with the vehicles as your unit of measurement (how many cars long is the table?)
Letter O: Odd One Out (pictured above) – Line up 3-5 vehicles that all have the same thing in common, except for one. Ask your child to find the odd one out.
Letter P: Patterns with Cars, Painting with Cars (pictured above)
Letter Q: Quilt Decorating with Vehicle Painting – create a quilt design with tape (like this one) and let your child paint with vehicles, then peel the tape off when it’s dry for your own unique work of art.
Letter R: Road Letter Tracing (pictured above), Rocket Balloon Racing, Race to a Letter, learning about Ramps
Letter S: Shapes and Counting (pictured above), Sound It Out Parking Lot (for slightly older kids)
Letter T: Train Counting (pictured above), Train Painting or Tractor Painting, Tally Marks – grab a bin of cars, sort into colors, and make tally marks for each color
Letter U: Up, Down, and All Around Game – have your child hold a car in his hand, and follow the directions as you tell him to drive his car up in the air, down on the floor, and wherever else you choose.
Letter V: Venn Diagrams with cars – draw two overlapping circles and compare the traits of your vehicles (or use hula hoops like this for a larger visual)
Letter W: Wash the cars, with soap and water (pictured above) or with shaving cream – this is a great sensory play activity!
Letter X: X Marks the Spot – make a treasure map like this, then drive your car to the treasure!
Letter Y: Yes or No – does it go? using the paper version here (pictured above) or a mixture of cars and other toys
Letter Z: Zig Zag Tracks – your child can help create the tracks or just drive on the zig zags that you set up
Even More Vehicle Fun:
- Transportation Dot Marker Pages
- Race Car Coloring Pages
- Fire Truck Shape Craft
- 8 Preschool Math Ideas Using Toy Vehicles
- Vehicle Sensory Bins
All images are from the posts specified. Which letter will you start with?
I use A to Z lists like this as part of my plan to teach my children preschool using online resources. You can read more about that process in Pinterest Preschool.
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