Summary: This is a fun, rhythmic book for your little truck lover! Follow Hard Hat Pete’s day as he and his dump truck are ready for action, hauling stones and rocks.
When It’s Time to Cook…
You’ll need:
brownie mix (or the ingredients to make your own)
a clean dump truck toy
To Make:
Prepare the brownies and bake according to the directions provided with the mix.
Allow the brownies to cool.
Cut the brownies into small squares or break them up into chunks.
Add the brownie squares/chunks into the bed of the dump truck and enjoy!
Little Books for Little Cooks is a monthly feature that focuses on creating some edible fun with your little one. We will share a fun book to read with your little one along with a cooking activity to do that ties in with the featured book. Sometimes there may be actual cooking involved…and sometimes just fun!
Book Summary: This colorful picture book is a vehicle lover's dream-a whole alphabet of automobiles, trucks, machinery, and road signs. From "Ambulance" to "Zamboni," each page has a lower and uppercase letter displayed, a vehicle, a description and illustration that emphasize the spotlighted letter.
Art Painting with Cars-Jonah had a fun time dipping the wheels of his cars in paint and rolling them on paper. I chose cars with wheel patterns that would make interesting prints on the paper. We used a large piece of paper from our Melissa & Doug Deluxe Standing Easel outside on a warm day to have more room for painting.
Math We used our 1-10 number inserts with our Education Cubes and played the Parking Lot Game. (Visit link for a full explanation of the Parking Lot Game and to download a printable of the game mat.)
We sorted, counted, and made patterns with Transportation Foam Beads. (I purchased these from Oriental Trading several years ago, but can't find the correct product when searching on their website.) I wrote my tips for using these foam beads as math tools here.
Language Jonah put together our Lauri Toys Lace and Link Letters in ABC order and drove his cars on the "Alphabet Road." Each time he crossed a new letter, he said the letter name. We did this repeatedly.
It was a jam-packed Transportation unit for us! We didn't even get to everything I want to try, but then again, with my car-crazed little guy every day feels like a Transportation unit!
Summary: A classic, this book tells the story of a little engine that must get to the other side of the mountain to give gifts and toys to all the good little girls and boys. Like the story of the Good Samaritan, the initial passerby's wouldn’t help. But finally one engine helps just in time to deliver the presents. Use this story to encourage your Tot to help others in need or to comprehend that he/she can do all things through Christ.
Bible Verse
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
Activities
Head on over to Make Learning Fun for some great train pintables. We use various sized magnets and place the printable on top of a metal cookie sheet.
Toy Train Fun
If you have a train collection, help your Tot:
push the train
connect the trains
count the trains
make a mountain and have the little train say, “I know I can. I know I can. I know I can through Jesus.”
Other ideas:
sort trains by color
chose three lengths of trains and practice lining them up from shortest to longest
have your Tot line all of the trains in a long row
Crafts
Head on over to Michaels and purchase these great wooden trains to spell your child’s name. Your child will become familiar with the letters in their name while playing with them. You can also allow them to paint said trains.
Have fun with Do-A-Dots . . . we sure did! By the way, this printable is from Preschool Post, which also has many other great ideas and a complete lesson plan regarding trains.
Gabe actually had more fun opening and closing the markers instead of using them for their intended purpose. This is a great fine motor exercise for your Tot.
Summary: This is a fun, rhyming book about a little boy and his adventure playing with cars, buses, fire engines and more as they obey the traffic signals…red light stop, green light go!
Bible Verse
But Jesus said, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children." Matthew 19:4
Math
We used the Number Highway printables from Making Learning Fun. The boys drove the appropriate number of cars on each number highways. Of course, five green cars had to drive on highway #5 on the green tray!
Language
We used our foam ABC puzzle (similar to this one) along with our Rainbow Blocks to make a track for our cars. As each car drove on the track, the boys called out the letter that the car drove over!
File Folder Game
I created this car matching file folder game for my older boys a few years ago. I pulled it out for the little boys to try. It is basically a bunch of car clipart that I printed off and glued to a file folder. I did add a road and some parking spots! I printed off two copies of each car...one to adhere to the folder and the other to use for matching. If you take a closer look, some of the cars only have slight differences, which makes it a little more difficult for the boys.
Colors
We pulled out our “collection” of cars and the boys worked together to sort them all by color. Each car drove up onto the colored paper to park!
We pulled out our Bambino LUK and the Transportation book from the Critical Thinking 1 set. The boys had fun choosing their own transportation themed activities for some independent learning time! LOVE IT! (You can read my review about it here.)
Pattern Blocks
Pattern blocks are always a hit! We used them along with our car, helicopter, and train patterns from our set of pattern cards.
(sung to "Twinkle Little Star") Twinkle twinkle traffic light, standing on the corner bright. When its green its time to go. When its red its stop you know. Twinkle twinkle traffic light, standing on the corner bright.
Craft
Use recycled materials to make this super fun rollin’ racecar for your little one to zoom across the floor!
Snack
The boys LOVED making their stoplight cookies! We made rectangular sugar cookies and used peanut butter to adhere red, yellow, and green m&m’s. Yummy!
As Totally Tots grows and changes, we will add and retire certain blog features. The following features have been retired, but you can still find archived posts by clicking on the buttons below!
from our 
in ABC order and drove his cars on the "Alphabet Road." Each time he crossed a new letter, he said the letter name. We did this repeatedly. 
