vehicle match with free printable

 
Howdy! Last spring I purchased two packs of toy cars with the intention of making a matching game that never happened. Flash forward to the new school year and a burst of creative energy and I have a freebie for you!

use folded scrapbook paper for a background

a piece of tape stages where to place each vehicle

tiny vehicles!

The cars came from T.J. Maxx and were $2.99 each (for a pack of five). Score! I created a mini photo studio by placing the vehicles on two different colors of textured scrapbook paper near a natural light source. Before printing, I upped the brightness and saturation of the photos and cropped them for a tighter visual. I then used PicMonkey to add two pictures to one photo so that the finished size would be about the size of a business card. Photos were printed at a photo kiosk, cut by hand, and then laminated by me.

To set up, I popped the vehicles into a small basket and set out the cards. I was interested to see what the children would do.

Turns out, they did exactly what I intended, along with some hoarding and some playing. For an added bonus, I demonstrated how the cars moved when you pulled them back a little and released them. The children soon found out that if you pulled back for too long the car would break. No worries though, they were still able to match 'em up!

For clean up, the cars were returned to the basket along with the cars. When we were looking for the cars, we played the matching game to discover which cars were missing and then used the card to identify the runaway! The children loved it!

I can't sell you a pack of cars but I can offer up access to the cards. Save as a PDF and print out two copies of each photo and you have an instant matching game! Enjoy! (Let me know if you are having any issues)

Vehicle Match Printable from scrumdilly-do!

it's all in the details...

our fine motor shelf ready to motor!

We're spending a few weeks reading books on trains and trucks. The library corner is stocked with books, we have an awesome thrifted wooden train and car set on our building table, and the shelves around the room are filled with activities centered around shapes and things that go. Here's a peek!

This is our Math Shelf.  It consists of two Ikea cabinets with the doors and extra shelves removed. We aim to keep it simple by placing one basket or tray of manipulatives for exploration on each shelf. We have been exploring shapes and colors in the room so our Math Shelf is full of happy shapes and colors. On the top shelf we have a basket of pattern blocks along with a book on shapes, and our cylinder stackers from Guidecraft* (via Zulily). On the bottom shelves we have a basket of Magformers*, and a basket of rainbow cubes.  During the week, the children bring the baskets to different areas to the classroom to explore. When they are finished and it is time to clean up, the fill the baskets and return them to the shelves (or any surface they think will suffice).

The felt train was made to go along with the book Freight Train* by Donald Crews. I did a big ol' eye batting at the mister to get him to draw me the template for these pieces. I have them somewhere in a file and when I find them I will scan them in so you can use them as well if you are interested. I introduce the pieces as I read the story. We then work on sorting our vehicle counters* as a group on our circle time rug. Later in the week, these felt pieces are moved all over the classroom and used in various ways. The counters too are used all over the room. While I set up the investigation on our Math table, I do not fret when the children decide to use them elsewhere. The table is a bit tall for them and they prefer to use the floor for the most part. 

On the art table I have set out tickets, hole punches, and crayons in a truck shaped container. The children spent the week making ticket collages and creating their own train tickets. We have an art shelf as well full of paper, glue, crayons, and markers. Next to the art shelf and table is our easel for painting. 

We have two waterfall style bookcases in our reading area. I hit up the public library every two weeks for books that fit various themes. here we have all things transportation. I want to write more about the books but am not sure if anyone is interested enough. 

Finally we have our fine motor shelf, which is a Kallax shelf from Ikea (the entire shelf can be seen in the top photo of this post). Here we have shape connectors, transportation lacing beads* (I picked these up from Target), a thrifted peg board, and gears from Plan Toys*. In front of our shelf is a coffee table that the kiddos bring the baskets down to for exploring. 

So there ya go! More details on what I use in my classroom and how we set it up. The baskets are all thrifted and we have a cabinet in the classroom where we stack up the unused baskets. I'm a basket hoarder and my teaching partner is not so we agreed that if it doesn't fit in the cabinet it goes! Thank goodness they stack so nicely! 

*all Amazon links are affiliated with my school, just so ya know. Thank you!

cars and trucks and things that go: classroom set up

books! books! books!

 

sorting fun plus however they choose to use...

fine motor peg work

construction vehicle magnets

train patterning or matching

nuts and bolts for fine motor and investigation

adding tickets to the art table

investigating movement and building

our science table: how does it move?

trafic light sticky easel

freight train sorting

Really, this is vehicle sorting on a Freight Train inspired felt train but it was set up to go along with our week of Freight Train by Donald Crews. I use the rainbow in class a lot. I think it is a really great tool for color recognition, sequencing, math, color theory and so much more. We used these vehicle counters and the children spent a lot of time at our sorting center. The felt pieces also made an appearance at our felt board. Train pieces were drawn by the mister and cut out by me. They match the colors and cars in Freight Train.

Other Train books we read:

Locomotive by Brian Floca
The Little Red Caboose by Marian Potter
Trains by Gail Gibbons
Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Kevin Lewis
I Love Trains by Philemon Sturgess

bubble print trucks

 

We were reading Truck by Donald Crews and I wanted some sort of truck art/craft. We had already painted with cars both on paper and on tinfoil so I thought pulling our our rainbow bowls and adding liquid watercolor, soap, and water to the mix would be fun.We used bendy straws to create our bubbles and yes, we did have a young'un suck the soap right up but do you know what? He spit it out and looked at me with his lips all blue and I said "Ah, you got soap in your mouth." He nodded and I asked if he remembered how to blow bubbles using our bubble wand. After he nodded I explained again that we were going to blow through the straws to push air into our mixture. The air would help create bubbles and that once we got a nice hill of bubbles we would plop our paper on top to create a print. He was unsure and dubious of it it so I say with him and demonstrated how you can feel the air come out of the bottom of the straw. After a few tries he tried it again and was SO EXCITED to create bubbles! I know some people prefer to poke a hole in the straw to prevent kiddos from drinking up soap but I find once they do they work really hard and not doing it again. I use a gentle soap from J.R, Watkins and our liquid watercolor is non-toxic. I also make sure to use clean containers for those kiddos that just have to taste it. Here's what you need:

*small containers

*about a half cup of water per container

*hefty squirt of liquid watercolor (you can also use powdered tempera)

*squirt or two of liquid dish soap

*straw per kiddo

*large white paper cut into the shape of a truck

*plastic/vinyl tablecloth optional (it gets messy)

I used our small rainbow cups so offered up six different colors in rainbow order. There was a lot of dialogue and negotiation between the kiddos to see who would work at which bowl first.

Step 1. Set out bowls with water, soap, and watercolor

Step 2. Hand kiddos straws and explain that you will be BLOWING air through the straw not sucking up/drinking the bubble solution. If you need to demo do so. Have the kiddos blow into the straws while placing hteir pother hand underneath. Ask what they feel.

Step 3. Place a truck shape near each kiddo or set aside and wait for when they are ready. I drew my trucks freehand but you may be able to find templates online. You can use rectangular paper or any shape you like. We did trucks because we were on week two of a transportation unit.

Step 4. Have kiddos blow their bubbles. Before it gets too crazy make sure they know that first they will make their prints then they can get all wacky with blowing the biggest bubble mountains ever.

Step 5. When the children are ready, hand them their truck shape and tell them to place it over their bubble mountain. Many will be thrilled with the results and continue over and over again. Some not so much but that's okay too.

Hang trucks to dry for display or take home. This bubble explorations gets super messy so do not do this on carpet. You may even wish to do this outside. Once the kiddos were finished with their prints, I was loathe to waste the watercolor in the bowls so turned the activity into another fun project....photos soon!