A is for Ambulance Magnet Page

Free to download here from Making Learning Fun


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Homeschool
Preschool Resources
Alphabet
Magnet Pages
Transport

Letter T:t is for train:lacing template

Originally designed as an alphabet bag label by love my life x 4 as part of a whole "T" unit this makes the perfect lacing shape.

Print, laminate and cut out slightly bigger than the letter then just use a hole punch to add the lacing holes.  Download the file from here or click here to see the original post with its other activities.

Letter A: A is for airplane:dot to dot

Free to download here from Making Learning Fun.

Letter b:b is for bus:magnet page

Free to download here from making learning fun

Letter B: B is for Bob the builder: size sort

In the quest for free printable resources I came across this offering from Tired,Need Sleep.  There are 12 vechicles from the Bob the Builder programmes each with a big, little and medium version.

I think this was a bit overwhelming for B to be presented with so many in one go so when I use these again I will probably limit it to 3 or 4 named vechicles, having so many in the file does mean we will be able to vary it from time to time though!

Size Sort: Tractors

This size sequencing set is courtesy of the Farm Tot Book from 1+1+1=1.

The free pdf also has 18 pages of activities including Animal heads and tails puzzles, colouring pages, animal pairs, ABC's on the farm and a barn puzzle to print out.  The tractor size sort is perfect for a transport mad boy like B and we can use it for a transportation theme or a farm theme. If you would like to download the file for yourself go to this page.

Resources By Theme Master List:Transportation Theme

In an attempt to organise my own bookmarks and to pick and choose from all the great FREE resources available to download and print I have started listing them in these master lists by type of resource and also by theme.  You can access these master lists by using the tabs at the top of the page.
This post is on the theme of transportation and will be updated periodically as I add resources to this blog or discover new sources.  If you know of any that you think should be included feel free to leave a comment. Enjoy!

train lacing template

Air/Land/Water file folder game

Airplane dot to dot

 Ambulance cutting and sticking

Bus Magnet Page

Car Magnet Page

Numeric Sequence Train

Road Emergency Clip Cards

Scrambler Size Sort

Ship Shapes File Folder Game

Tractor Size Sort

Transport Matching Cards

Pinterest Transportation board

Scrambler Size Sort Activity

As part of B's pre-maths skills we have been using these kinds of activities to work on size discrimination.  One problem is explaining what he has to do - after big little and middle sized I kind of run out of vocabulary! Bob the Builder being one of his favourite characters I found and printed this Scrambler size sort from Tired Need Sleep.  B was not into having photos taken of these and kept scooping them up to take them away so here is part of one very dodgy photo just in case you don't know who Scrambler is (Bob the Builder would be horrified ;) ) there are actually 8 shapes.

Transportation Theme: Numeric Sequence Train

B loves anything to do with vehicles - like the majority of little boys; so when I found this free train tot pack for download from lawteedah I knew I would be onto a winner.  So far I have cherry-picked a few of the activities and one which B did perfectly first time (which was a pleasant surprise) was this number train.

The tot pack has  two files containing the engine and numbered carriages (1 - 10).  I printed these, laminated them and punched holes so they could be linked together.  The links I used were from Learning Resources (via Amazon.co.uk) but there are many versions on the market. Good number practice plus a fine motor workout as well.

Transportation Theme File Folder Game

Like most little boys B loves vechicles.  I decided to give the usual letters/numbers/shapes/colours games that I usually make for B a rest and try a thinking game where he had to categorise vechicles according to whether they travel on land sea or air.

I managed to find the file folder game at File Folder Farm.  B absolutely loved this game  and got 15 out of 16 correct on the first go!  It has been much requested and repeated.

Numbers and Counting Meets Fine Motor Skills:Clip Cards

Clip card games are those where you clip a peg (or clothes pin) onto a corresponding number/letter/word to match the picture on the card.  These are ideal for B since he has now developed the finger skills to clip pegs onto things; aided and abetted by the fact that since he and his brother managed to bend the steel post that held up the washing line by swinging on it there are lots of pegs around the house that are not in use at the moment.

In this case we used one file from Play 2 Learn Printables "Fall Leaves Clothes Pin Numbers" available for free download from here. We also found this site called Preschool Printables that is nothing but free printables with lots of sets including this kind of activity.  We decided to use the Road Emergency set and printed just the clipcards.

The files were printed and cut into separate cards and then laminated.  This leaves us the option to do as many or as few as we like.  Probably the latter since B's battlecry is still "No Counting!" :) - we have tried one or two so far but B is more interested in making patterns around the edge of the card rather than working out any learning problems.  Never mind at least I have a resource for future use. Two steps forward, one step back is still progress even if sometimes it doesn't feel like it.  Naturally the cars set was more popular than the leaves but we can re-use them for an autumn theme later on this year.

Linked to:

Letter C: c is for Car: Magnet Page

c is for car magnet page to download from here.

File Folder Games: Number Train

Onward with the battle to get B to count!
I found a really colourful train to print out from here.
Next I loaded it into a paint program and set to work.
I wanted to print the first set of carriages with just the numerals 0-9 on them.  These were to be stuck in the file folder.
Then I printed an identical set to allow one-to-one corresponding matching of numerals. They were laminated for durability as usual.
Then we printed another set and stuck "cargo" in the carriages before laminating; you could use just dots to make it more basic but I figured my anti-number son might like something a little different.  BTW sequins are OK to go through a laminator. (I only discovered this thanks to a video by Shelley over at childcareland.com if you haven't found her site already head over there as there is lots of stuff for free as well as resources to buy)
We also printed a third set to use much later with the numbers in word form.

So much for the plan.
Here is the first version finished.

Although it will do for now I am not happy with the finished graphics.  First my printer ran out of yellow so the colours are not as good as the original graphic.  Also I printed out the graphic to fit an A4 page and it is pixelated. Finally it is a little boring really I want to add some rails and some scenery.  (Stand by for the revised version in the New Year if I get a chance!)
B loved helping to stick the trains together.  Then my number hating son put the pattern recognition skills he has learnt over the last few months to good use and before we could even play it once he noticed the patterns were numbers "No Counting!" and off he went!
Better luck next time I hope!

Shapes: ship shape file folder game

Free resource to download from Preschool Printables

Ship shape file folder game - match the shapes on the sails.  Could also be used as part of a transport/boat theme.

Letter T is for Transport: Transport matching cards

Like the majority of little boys B is obsessed with cars, planes and trains.  Today we printed out some cute matching cards from activity village (you can find the pdf here) and laminated them to make them more durable.

We printed two copies of the page so we could play a couple of games.
First we laid out one copy of each picture on the sofa and B was handed the other cards to match the pairs. (This of course could be done as a file folder game)

Then R and I played Memory. We started with all cards the face down and the players take it in turns to turn over two cards - if they match you keep them if not turn them back; player with the most pairs at the end wins.
Finally the cards could be used for a transport themed game of snap.

Letter B: B is for bus:Magnet Page

Once again we went to the make learning fun site and used their magnet pages for a do-a-dot activity. We did both dot painting and putting coins in the dots using this page although there are other letter B magnet pages on the site.
Then we had a pretend bus ride with B as the driver. We used a shelving unit that we happened to be building (B's idea I just grabbed the opportunity)and the steering wheel from MarioKart WII. We also made fake tickets and took the bus to the beach talking about what we might see out of the windows along the way. It turned out to be lots of animals so that we could all join in with the animal sounds. The song of the day was of course "The Wheels on the Bus" - what else! Finally we played with a toy bus that you can take the passengers in and out of. Of course if we had wanted to we could have added a field trip taking the bus somewhere as well.

Letter A: A is for Ambulance

"B needs to learn his letters" I said to OH the other day. At 2 he is a little young but if he were in the UK he would be spending a couple of afternoons a week at our local nursery just like his brother and sister did. Where to start with learning letters? Some advocate doing it ABC order, some linking it with reading/phonics and so doing those letters that have the same sound whatever word they are in which roughly translated means vowels last. Jolly Phonics (which was taught to the Reception Class at my kids UK school) starts with the letter "S". I decided that reading can wait and stuck with alphabetical order so "A" it is.
For the first "A" activity I took a picture of an ambulance (I used the one from http://www.first-school.ws/) and dropped it into MSPaint. Then I painted out the wheels. Next I dropped the same picture in and painted out the bodywork instead. This left me with two sheets.

I then cut out the wheels and gave them to B along with the other sheet and (fanfare please!) a glue stick. You have never seen such a happy toddler because whenever we do gluing normally his sister interfers; I mean helps; and takes the glue stick away from him. Not only that but he could pull the wheels off and stick them down again several times - Wow! As you can see he got them pretty much spot on too. With an older preschool child they could cut the wheels out themselves.
He didn't feel like colouring today so it will get displayed au naturelle later in the week.

F is for Fish: submarine portholes

If you could explore the bottom of the sea in a submarine what would you see out of the window?

First we took a paper plate each and cut out the centre to give us a ring this is our porthole. R and A did this themselves once I had made an initial hole in the plate. Don't worry if the ring splits a little as you cut this will be stuck back together in a minute.

Then we took some clear sticky-backed plastic (aka book film or contact paper) and cut out two circles a little bigger than the hole in the plate

Then we took some coloured tissue paper and cut out some fish.

To assemble take one of the circles of sticky-backed plastic and stick it on the back of the paper plate. Turn the plate over so that the front of your "window" is sticky. Arrange the tissue paper fish on "window". Seal in with the other circle of sticky-backed plastic.

Display on a window so that the sun can shine through!

Easy!

B being only 2 did a basic one which I prepared for him but both R and A did all the cutting themselves. R decided to do her fish all kinds of sizes and added blue "waves". Make it as basic or complex as you want.


As an afterthought we decided that the pictures would look even better if they had a submarine silhouette as a "frame". We left our sub plain due to lack of time but we could have decorated it as well.


This kind of idea would also make a great bulletin board art display with pictures mounted in the windows of a sub, or boat, or car, or rocket ......Hmm I wonder what aliens you might see on Mars out of the window of your rocket....