Are you looking for simple land, air, and water vehicles activities for young children? These ideas were a huge hit with our young ones.

It can be extremely difficult to present with vehicle themed activities that don't distract from the learning process. 

I was super excited that these vehicle themed activities encouraged learning, used tangible objects, and incorporated an interest the kids have.

Land, Air and Water Vehicles

This week marks the last week of our vehicle unit.  Hooray for me!  The boys will be sad though I'm sure.  To wrap our unit up we focused on the difference between land, air, and water vehicles.  This way we could include any and all vehicles we've not talked about during the month so far.

Vehicle Spelling Activity

I loved these letter print outs and decided to create words with one copy so the kids could match up the letters, if they weren't ready to spell the words themselves.  

If they were ready to spell the words themselves, I loved that the letters had pictures on them, so they knew what letters to use for each word.

Source:  I found these printables at Homeschool Creations.

Vehicle Books for Young Readers

Dinomite is doing so well with his reading, I decided to put a reading activity on the shelves.  He did so well with it!  I love having access to our local public library system!

Vehicle Patterns

All of the kids are fabulous at finishing a pattern that's already established, so I decided to go a step further and have them create their own patterns from the start.  I found the vehicle erasers at our local dollar store.  They all did a fabulous job!

Land, Air & Water Vehicle Sorting

I loved the visual concept of this activity when I saw it.  The kiddos liked it too, especially when sorting their vehicles between the three jars.  I had a blast making the vehicle cards.  There were at least six in each category.

Sources:  I found this idea at Montessori Moments.  The vehicle cards were made by me.

Land, Air, & Water Vehicle Sewing Cards

Source: I found these cards at our local dollar store.

Vehicle Silly Band Tweezer Activity

This activity appeared trickier than it looked, which I loved.  The boys LOVED pulling out vehicle silly bands one by one, trying to figure out what shape they were, before transferring them into the other container.

Source:  This idea came from Counting Coconuts.

I love how simple and easy these activities were to put together, yet they were so inviting because they were vehicle themed activities.

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Easter is a very popular holiday in our home. I love that it's an easy holiday to incorporate literature as well.

Our Easter Activities with Free Printables focus on two stories:

• Runaway Bunny
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit & The Tale of Benjamin Button

These books are such a fantastic way to kick off the spring!

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Easter Activities with Free Printables

The ABC Bunny Alphabet

Bulldozer has decided he likes writing, or tracing I should say. 

I'm trying to incorporate at least one activity a week that is just tracing letters or numbers.  He's doing such a great job!

Source:  I found these printables at Homeschool Creations.

Gardening Sight Words

This activity went along with the story, The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  There are many tools and garden references in the story, so I figured it was quite appropriate.

Source:  I found these at Homeschool Creations.

 Easter Egg Word Ending Sounds

Princess LOVED this activity and used it every day!  I'm not sure what she enjoyed so much about it, but by day three, she could do it perfectly with no help!

Each of the egg contents was separated out by what letter the object word ended with.

Source:  I was inspired by an idea I saw at Pre K Pages.

The Runaway Bunny Sight Words

These words were great to have around as we focused on the story of The Runaway Bunny.  I probably would have used more of the packet of printables than I did, however my kiddos have mastered most of them.

Source:  I found this printable as part of a packet at Homeschool Creations.

The Runaway Bunny Sequencing Activity

This was a FABULOUS activity!  I LOVED it!  The kids were asked to put in sequence, all of the things the little bunny was going to become, in order from 1st to 8th.  

I loved how the activity included not just the written numbers, but the spellings of each number too.  

I included the book on the tray, so they could look the answers up if they couldn't remember them.  To my surprise, Dinomite had the order memorized by the second reading of the book.

Source:  I found this printable as part of a packet at Homeschool Creations.

Egg Sight Word Activity

This was another activity Princess practiced every day.  I'm not sure she gets the concept of reading words, but she loved spelling words out.  Dinomite did this activity once. I was pleased to learn that he knew all of his sight words but 5 in the activity.

Source:  I found this idea at Pre K Pages.

Addition Wheels

In need of another math activity, and wanting to give Dinomite a little more practice with his addition facts, I switched out beads and pipe cleaners for beautiful pink and purple flowered beads I found at the dollar store in town.  

The kiddos do great putting a bead on the inside number, and then counting out the same number of the same color bead below, then selecting an outside number and counting out those beads with the second color to find the answer to the problem.  

Princess is now trying to write the math problems all by herself!

Source:  I found the addition wheel printables at Montessori for Everyone.

Counting/Add & Even Numbers

A couple weeks ago we worked on odd and even numbers. Dinomite really liked it, but didn't quite have it all down, so I figured we'd reintroduce them.  

If Bulldozer and Princess don't want to find out if the numbers are odd or even, by pairing up the counting seeds, then they can just put the cards in order from 1-20.

Source:  I found these printables at Homeschool Creations.

Jelly Bean Sorting & Graphing

This activity was loved by all, including Mommy and Daddy. 

Each kiddo did it every day last week.   

They loved sorting out the jelly beans (although our package came with no blue), and then did a fabulous job graphing them.  

I'm not sure if the little ones realized what they were doing, but they could do the activity independently with no problems.

Source:  I found these printables at Empowering Little Learners.

Vegetable Match Up

This activity went along with our Peter Rabbit theme.  I've gotta say, there were some vegetables I didn't know from these cards.  I was very thankful for the written guide as I was teaching the kids.  Dinomite loved this activity!

Source:  I found this game at The Helpful Garden.

Coloring Easter Eggs

Now that Bulldozer has grown out of his egg allergy, I decided to have them decorate eggs for the first time. However, I knew that the odor of the vinegar was going to really bother them, so we used Kool-aide instead.  

The colors varied throughout the week.  I loved adding the tongs into the activity to help them with their scissor skills.  Remembering that crayons could add some extra fun, I threw them in too.  The kiddos are having a blast!

Peter Rabbit's Coat Buttons

All of the kids really struggle with their dressing skills, so I wanted to start incorporating those things into our activities.  

Seeing as Peter Rabbit's coat was blue, I decided to bring out Bulldozer's blue sweater from when he was a baby, to have the kids practice on.  Hopefully it will go well.  (It just came out on the shelves today.)

Matching Egg Sounds

This is a repeat of an activity we did last year, which I'm sure is an idea on many internet sites, but I did think if it myself.  

There are five pairs of eggs with different seeds in them.  The kiddos shake the eggs to find the matching pairs. 

Once they think they've found a match, they can open up the eggs and see.  

Be careful to only fill the eggs up a little bit, so when the kiddos open them, the seeds don't fly everywhere.

Carrot Peeling

I thought of this activity myself, although I'm sure many have thought of it before me.  I was a little worried about the sharp edge of the peeler, until Bulldozer selected the activity first thing and did FABULOUS with it!  

I was super excited, as I now know my kids can help peel carrots and other vegetables in the kitchen!

Bunny Tower

When I saw this activity I knew Bulldozer and Dinomite would love it, and they did.  The first day brought tears from Bulldozer, but then after practicing he eventually built the entire tower.  That kid is so determined!

Dinomite built the entire tower too..

Source: I found this idea at Strong Start.  I found the game at our local Wegman's.

Easter Tree Decorating

I purchased this Easter tree a couple of months ago, when I saw it at our local dollar store.  I thought it would be a perfect practical life activity. 

The kids really struggled at Christmas time to hang ornaments on the tree.  This would give them great practice and really encourage them to use their pincher grasp.

The activity was a huge it!

Jelly Bean Transfer

We started out using tongs at the beginning of the week, but switched to spooning after Bulldozer broke the tongs by accident.  They are getting really good at these type of activities.  It's going to be time to move on to something else soon.

This picture was taken after the activity was completed. It is recommended that transfer go from left to right.

Source:  I found this idea at Carrots Are Orange.

And there you have it!  We've had a lot of fun preparing for the Easter holiday!

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Racing Vehicles

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We are now finishing our third week of vehicle themed studies.  I've gotta say, I'm ready to switch gears, BUT the boys are LOVING this unit.  Princess is enjoying herself too, as I've been adding St. Patrick's Day and Easter activities every week.  Our Easter activities will be posted soon!  Next week is our last week, focusing on land, air, and water vehicles in a more generic sense.  Here's what we did this week-

Language

Disney Cars Shape Sight Words

I've been really working hard to teach the kids their basic sight words of numbers, colors, shapes, etc.  This week we focused on shapes.  All three kiddos loved the Cars printables I found.

Source:  I found this as part of a printable packet at 1+1+1=1.

 M is for Monster Truck (& Mud)

Bringing back our "mud" play dough from a couple weeks ago, the kids made upper case and lower case M's.  I did not realize how difficult this was going to be for them.  There will definitely be more of these  activities to come!

Source:  I found this cute printable at 1+1+1=1.  It was part of a Monster Trucks printable packet.

Math

Racing Race Cars

Oh My Goodness!!!  This was by far THE FAVORITE activity of the week.  So much that there were almost daily arguments.  Our Montessori classroom is still in the works. I don't have enough sets of shelves yet for every subject area. Instead I have a set of black shelves on one side of the room, and four lower shelves of 2 bookshelves on the other side of the room.  (The upper shelves I use for storage.)  To help with Bulldozer's stemming issues, related to his autism, I divide the activities up into 2 categories.  The kids call them the "work" shelves and the "fun" shelves.  The activities more geared towards math, language, and geography are usually located on the black shelves or the "work" shelves.  The other "fun" shelves usually hold our science, practical life, art, music, and sensorial activities.  For the first half of learning time, the kids have to choose activities from the black shelves.  The second half of learning time the kids choose activities from the other shelves.  I know this may not be typical, but Bulldozer would not do anything else if he had full access to the other "fun" shelves the entire time.

So, the Racing Race Cars activity was at first on the black shelves.  They were matching colors, numbers, and well... that's it.  But, that was NOT it for them.  Every time someone was using this game, everyone was glued to it.  Which car would win?  Who's ahead now?  It went on and on.  After three days, the activity was moved to the "fun" shelves, to ensure that the kiddos would choose other "work" activities.  Needless to say this tray was a BIG hit! I found the little markers at our local dollar store. They're actually tiny stamps, but none of the kids knew that. :)

Oh, I almost forgot to share how we played the game.  Each number 1-6 was represented by one of the colored race car. The kiddos rolled the die to find out what car moved ahead one space. If the die read 6, then car number 6 moved space.  This could be a group activity or an individual activity.  The kiddos kept rolling the die until one car made it to the finish line.  Dinomite always loved seeing who came in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th too.

Source: I found this activity at Mama Jenn.

 Monster Truck Numbers 1-20

I was really surprised that Bulldozer selected this activity every day of the week.  He's not one to practice writing, but he definitely did this week.  Perhaps it was the monster trucks on the page, I don't know.  He did a fabulous job tracing numbers that could be traced, and even wrote in a few of his own. Way to go Bulldozer!

Source: This printable came as part of a packet at 1+1+1=1.

 Numbers to 9,999

I still do not have my golden bead sets of 100 and 1000, but I couldn't resist introducing the kids to the decimal system as they have been trying to invent their own really big numbers for a few weeks now.  They just seemed ready.  And boy was Dinomite ready!

He loved this activity this week, except for the setting up and picking up parts.  We took turns making numbers back and forth, as he identified each and every one.  It was so much fun!  Bulldozer even joined in once or twice.

Source:  I found these number print outs at Montessori Print Shop.

Science 

Let's Build a Car!

Dinomite is really big into LEGOS right now, especially LEGO City sets.  He received a few new kits for his birthday, one being a My First Lego kit.  It just so happened it was a car kit.  I couldn't resist adding it to our shelves so that all three kiddos could build their own race cars.  The activity was very well received!

Racing Predictions vs. Winners

Dinomite also received a Hot Wheels Racing Ramp for his birthday.  Of course I had to incorporate that!  The ramp is set up for 4 cars.  I selected 4 different colors.  Before the cars raced down the ramp, the kiddos wrote down the number race it was on their recording sheet, and then colored in the prediction square with the color of the car they thought might win the race.  After the race was finished, they colored in the winner square with the color of the car who won.  It was fun to see how excited they would get if their predictions were right.

Everyone did this activity at least twice! I would say it was second favorite of the week!

Practical Life

Monster Truck Wash

I had originally thought of bringing out our "mud" play dough again and have the kids build a monster truck race track, BUT, they came up with the idea first and did that all of Sunday afternoon, so they had enough.  Instead, after listening to the boys complain about the play dough stuck in their monster trucks, I created a monster truck washing station.  One bowl had soapy water for them to wash the monster truck, using the tooth brush provided, while the other bowl had clean water in it to rinse.  I also provided a dish towel.  The kids enjoyed the activity but really struggled with using the tooth brush to wash.  It looks like we're going to need to incorporate more hand strengthening activities.  Yippee!

And that was our week.  Yet another fun one!

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