With summer coming to a close and preschool starting back up soon, I've decided to throw in couple of mini-themes before we lose Honey Pot three mornings a week. We had a small construction unit last summer as well. But these kiddos, particularly Little M&M, love construction trucks.
Book
To introduce our mini-theme we read one of our current bedtime favorites, Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site. Little M&M also is partial to Dig Dig Digging, which we have borrowed from the library a fair few times.
Craft
I found this awesome idea on Pinterest, and it originates from Momstown. Love this idea! First I printed two construction truck coloring pages from the Internet. The kids colored them with markers, and then I cut them out.
Little M&M went first. He glued his truck onto the paper...
Then added glue into the bed of the truck and behind it.
And we used oatmeal as the truck's "dirt." He loved adding this to his picture!
Honey Pot went next, gluing her truck to the paper...
Then adding glue in front of her bulldozer's blade.
And she added her oatmeal "dirt" too!
Awesome!
Small World Play
The kids use these trucks every day that they play outside. No joke. In the dirt. On the deck. Across the driveway. Down the slide. At the beach. In the woods while camping. Little M&M received these as a gift, but here it is on Amazon. Go buy it, seriously. So today we just created a small construction site for them, with dirt and rocks and lots of imagination! Little M&M has a hardhat too, but we really need to buy some traffic cones!
Fill the Dump Truck Game
This printable comes from The Measured Mom. We used blocks as our manipulatives, but you can use anything. Honey Pot went first. This really helped her practice her number recognition. She still has trouble with the teens!
I love how she stacked her blocks, instead of laying them all down in flat rows like I would have.
Little M&M gave it a try too! We covered the numbers 1-4, though one-to-one correspondence is a very new concept for him. Great start!
Construction Puzzles
We completed all four of our 12-piece construction puzzles from Melissa and Doug.
Working so well together. Though they look stumped, they did figure this out without my help!
Truck Racing
We returned outside with our CAT trucks for a little race. Little M&M is always zooming around just like this. So I just made a game of it, and it became very exciting!
I wrote a START sign at the top of the driveway with chalk, and a FINISH sign at the bottom.
"On your mark. Get set. GO!"
I asked Honey Pot how she might get her truck to go faster. I thought instead of letting go she could push it. But she decided a trike goes much faster!! LOL.
Sensory Bin
Little M&M loves these trucks so much that the Easter bunny also gave him a smaller set in his Easter basket. I set the kids up out on the deck with a bucket of expired popcorn kernels one afternoon this week. It was a quick setup that offered them a new sensory experience and lots of fun. And the mess afterward was minimal. That's a win!
Always...
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