C is for Cars

This week our theme was C is for Cars.  Lil' Bear is so in love with cars right now, and we had tons of fun with everything cars.  I wasn't sure if Lil' Bear would get into it, but I have tried to have a new finger play rhyme for him to learn each week that goes with our theme, and I have been pleasantly surprised to hear him saying the rhymes we have learned while playing.  He really loves them, especially because they have been all about airplanes, bikes, and this week, cars:

(use your thumbs to act out the rhyme):

Car, Car may I have a ride?  (one thumb to the other)

Yes sir, Yes sir.  Step right inside. (other thumb "answering" the first)

Get in the car. (Put thumbs next to each other)

Step on the gas.  (Push thumbs forward)

Chug away, Chug away.  (Pretend to hold a steering wheel)

But don't go too fast!  (Shake your finger as if scolding or saying "no")

SENSORY:

 This week we tried making car tracks in play dough.  They didn't turn out too well, and Lil' Bear started getting really frustrated with it until he figured out how to make car imprints in the play dough.  He enjoyed comparing the different undercarriages of different cars.  This kept him busy for way longer than I expected. 

We also brought out flour to make car tracks in "snow," but we only did this one day as the cleanup was quite extensive.  I am sure we will do this again, but it may be a once a week activity, as Lil' Bear really takes great joy out of "making it snow."  J

PRACTICAL LIFE:

Lil' Bear had fun opening and closing containers to find erasers inside.  We especially worked on moving from left to right, top to bottom and keeping everything nice and orderly.  I was surprised to see how quickly he caught onto this, and he was quickly able to complete the work without any help from me.  He did it over and over again and pretty much mastered unscrewing lids.  We also talked about not opening any containers that mommy or daddy has not told him he could open, especially if it is medicine.  It was neat to hear him repeating directions to himself while working…"Unscrew slowly but don't open med'cin.  Only open what mommy says." J  (Don't worry we still take special care to keep anything that might be dangerous up and out of reach).

We also continue to work on pouring as this is one of Lil' Bears favorite activities.  I think for March I might dye the water green.

MATH:

We tried something new from 2 Teaching Mommies.  It sounded like Lil' Bear might enjoy it, but it ended up being quite a bit over his head.  I made a ruler for him and helped him measure some different cars to see which was biggest, smallest, etc.  He ended up just driving the cars around.  He did order them in size from biggest to smallest, but associating a number with size is a little beyond him right now. 

We also continued playing our number game and played Hi Ho Cherry-O as well.

LANGUAGE:

Another idea I got from 2 Teaching Mommies was highway letters and it was a hit.  We only did letters A, B, and C both capitals and lower case, and Lil' Bear had a blast racing his cars on the letters.  We also used the time to review these letters, their sounds, and matching the capitals with the lowercase.

We tried doing a find the C activity, but Lil' Bear got really frustrated with this as well.  I think he is just not quite ready for writing, so I am going to continue to keep that really informal.  He really likes it when I make him a dashed line and he pretends that his pencil/crayon/pen/marker is a train and he has to keep it on the "track."  I think we will be sticking to that for the moment as anything more formal, like a tracing page or circling letters, gets him very frustrated and upset with himself. 

We also enjoyed Starfall as usual. 

ART/SCIENCE:

I truly cannot remember where I got the idea from, but another activity Lil' Bear enjoyed a ton was making painter's tape roads.  We had a blast creating a city and running our cars through the city.  We also talked about shapes and colors this time using all the different blocks we used to build our skyscrapers.

And of course, Lil' Bears favorite activity was brought out every day, the "art box."  We used cars to make car tracks in paint. 

We did our first planting of the season as well.  I can't wait for Lil' Bear to see the first sprouts!

We had an awesome, awesome adventure at the NC Transportation Museum.  It is a FREE museum in Spencer, NC and is so packed full of neat fun things for the kids to do that I think I will have to devote a separate post to that trip alone. 

We had so much fun this week with everything cars and I look forward to the start of March and beginning the countdown to St. Patrick's Day that I developed for the kids.  Should be fun!

For more great preschool ideas check out: