Little ones adore playing with cars and trucks. I’m an advocate of taking a child’s interests and building learning opportunities around those interests. Here are some of the best literacy ideas to utilize during car and truck play. Let’s get rolling!
Truck and Car Activities for Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Beyond
LEARNING THE ALPHABET
ABC Tunnels from the Simple Play Ideas are so fun and easy to make. We all have cardboard tubes on hand so you can do this activity today!
Letter Delivery is a fun movement activity for learning the alphabet and it has a cute book about a car to go along with it.
Kids love to knock things down? This ABC Knockdown from Teaching Mama lets the kids knock down alphabet towers with construction trucks.
Race to a Letter from True Aim Education is a fun activity for building letter recognition and also working on science and math concepts.
Monster Truck Letter Smash from Toddler Approved caught the attention of my kids when I was searching for ideas in this post. They can’t wait to do this one!
Race the Alphabet from Life with Moore Babies is another variation of the activity above and it includes a fun racing book recommendation.
Kitchen Floor Crafts shares an easy to make a Letter Match Race Car Village. My kids love this kind of play mat.
Playdough to Plato shares a set of lowercase and uppercase tracing letter tracks. These would be perfect for a busy bag.
Make sure to grab your FREE set of ABC vehicle cards. Keep reading to learn how to get your set.
ENVIRONMENTAL PRINT
Billboards are a great way to introduce your kids to environmental print. Now, they can have a custom set for their own car and truck play!
Are We There Yet? Maps are great for taking in the car on a road trip. Another way for kids to learn about environmental print and stay busy on a long or short trip!
Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails shares a fun paper city for lots of fun car play.
LEARNING YOUR NAME
This Parking Garage activity will have kids practicing their names and cleaning up the room! It is one of the most popular activity posts on Growing Book by Book.
Buggy and Buddy share a toy car activity for learning your name. I’ll be using this idea next week with my kids!
SIGHT WORDS
Race Car Word Erase is a fun way to have kids practice reading sight words or identifying letters of the alphabet.
Alphabet Rocks Construction Site Activity from The Imagination Tree is a scoop and spell activity that would be perfect for building simple sight words or word family words.
Ready, set, race! Our Whimsical Days shares a racing activity that involves learning those sight words.
SPELLING AND WORD STUDY
Monster Truck Phonics Smash utilizes those monster trucks. Kids will jump over cars with their truck as they sound out words.
Car Track Delivery from Stay at Home Educator is a great way to let the kids move while they work on their spelling skills.
Sound it Out Parking Lot from I Can Teach My Child is a great activity for helping kids sound out and blend words.
Car and Truck Books
Take your play right into some great transportation books.
Transportation Books for Preschoolers
Transportation Books for Toddlers
Car ABC Cards
I hope you are inspired to add a little literacy practice into your kids’ car and truck play.
Bring joy and play into children’s lives through books and fun literacy activities. Become a part of the Growing Book by Book community and receive emails full of time-saving resources and offers. As a thank you, you’ll receive the printable ABC cars set pictured above.
And, if you are looking for even more transportation fun, check out our Transportation Preschool Literacy Unit.—>See the Transportation Unit
*This post was first published on Growing Book by Book 11/24/14.
Olivia Rose says
Thanks for sharing this fabulous idea. My younger daughter loves to play with cars. she is so obsessed with the car she can spend a whole day playing with them. I will try these activities with my daughter. thanks for sharing.
Samantha @ Stir the Wonder says
We love playing with cars here! I’ll have to try some of these activities! Thanks for linking up at the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop! We hope you stop by again next week!
carolyn gunn says
I really love your ideas and as soon as I am able to get back in the classroom I will try them. I am getting information so that I will have things in order. Thank you
Kalista says
Fun! I have a little boy that will appreciate this very much. Thanks for sharing!
Mackenzie says
These are awesome! Thanks so much for sharing, they are all fabulous ideas. Have pinned! 🙂
Jodie Rodriguez says
Thank you Mackenzie. It was such a fun post to put together.
Katie Wassink says
Brilliant! I love the idea of racing to a letter or zooming over to a sight word. Such a great post for a mo of 2 little guys who like to race. #laughlearnlinkup Pinning!
Nancy says
These are great! I’ll definitely try these activities with my grandsons who play with cars all day long.