Things that go!

Cindy Molnar
Preschool (3-5)
Ohio Early Learning and Development Standards
Domain: Approaches toward learning
Strand/Topic: Initiative/Initiative and Curiosity
Standard Statement: Ask questions to seek explanations about phenomena of interest.
Domain: Cognition and General Knowledge
Strand/Topic: Mathematics/Number Sense/Number Sense and Counting
Standard Statement: Understand that the last number spoken tells the number of objects counted.
Domain: Cognition and General Knowledge
Strand/Topic: Measurement and Data/Data Analysis
Standard Statement: Collect data by categories to answer simple questions.
Lesson Summary:
This lesson will build upon basic knowledge of transportation in our daily lives. Children will encounter the opportunity to
build many models and race them out of recycled objects and legos. Children will explore different vehicles such as a
school bus, car, bike, plane and fire truck and compare and contrast their functions, differences and similarities and
collect data with teacher. Children will do a survey to find out the most popular means of transportation in the classroom
and build a large model as a class. Children will explore and learn about transportation with many hands on
experiences inside and outside of the classroom.
Estimated Duration:
This lesson will be a minimum of one week and could last longer depending upon the childrens interest and direction
they choose to build their day. We will use our group time and center times during the day which is a total of 40 minutes
per day. (Based upon a Reggio environment and philosophy I foresee a longer time period occurring each day.) As we
enter our center time we split into two groups due to the age range of 3-5 and the children will be doing the same
activities however the older children will have more technology and challenging materials such as legos over blocks in
their building activities.
Commentary:
We will review foundation discussions and knowledge of transportation with the children and go over the charts of the
things they liked best about our discussions. We will hook the students by showing a brief video from the PBS Learning
Media resources about transportation and then finding out what they want to learn more about transportation. It could be
how its put together, what it does, why it is important or who drives or uses it. Due to the age of this group activities and
interests levels may change day to day and affect the intended plans; however we will change what is necessary to
obtain the overall goal for the education and enjoyment of the children.
Instructional Procedures:
Day 1:
The students will gather for group time after they have settled into class and put away their bags and coats. For the first
3 minutes I will ask the children if they remember what the word transportation means. The students will either shout out
their responses or I will assist them with some of the ideas we have talked about. I will show them their favorite picture
book called Trucks and other things that go! to get the dialogue going. We will then watch the PBS video on
Transportation (44 seconds) We will explain to the children that we are going to be exploring all types of cars, trucks,
planes and boats as we split into groups. We will ask them to look at the parts of the cars and think about what they do,
where they go and if they have been in one. We will split into our younger and older groups and just let the children
explore the cars, books, picture files and track and we will engage them with open ended questions. This will last for 20
minutes.

During the second group time we will go and explore the school bus in our parking lot. The students will be able to
collect data, take pictures, and count the wheels, look at the parts, be shown the engine by our bus driver and go on the
bus. When we come back to our classroom we will take out our poster board and create a chart of what we saw and
what we liked most. We will also discuss the bus drivers job. 20 30 minutes
Day 2:
We will gather again after coats and bags are put away and all students have arrived. We will gather for group time and
sing a few funny songs about driving to get our wiggles out and then we will discuss our morning group time activities.
Our children will be able to play with the dramatic play props which will consist of different hats, uniforms and parts to
make a vehicle. They can pretend to be a school bus driver or ice cream truck driver and play. The kids will have the
freedom to interact with one another as we will have props for many scenarios such as bus stop, delivery to a house,
construction items etc. We will also have the smart board available for the older children to build a car online and
explore body styles, parts and watch it go. We will also introduce the racing ramps to our children and see how different
size cars go down the ramp and collect data to see which ones were the fastest, slowest and what was different or the
same about the cars. 20 minutes in the morning.
The second group time in the afternoon we will have side walk chalk for the kids to create roads outside and they will be
able to ride their bikes, big wheels or pretend to be cars on the road on the playground. We are also able to adapt this
activity to our large gathering area inside if weather is not permissible for outside activity. We will also have dump trucks
and many other trucks and cars that the kids can play with outside, in the dirt piles and explore their functions. While we
are out we will also explore a car and collect data about it and how it is different from our school bus. 30 40 minutes.
When we come back inside we will again chart our information and then I will make it into a digital poster using
infographics to share with the children the next day.
Day Three
Our morning routine will be the same and we will have a mystery box filled with all the types of trucks and vehicles we
have been talking about for the past few day. I will have enough for all the kids to pick one out and tell the group about it
and if they need scaffolding I will be able to assist. The children will then put the vehicles in the sensory table that is
filled with rice and other parts of vehicles. The children will have the opportunity to use this as a seek and find activity
when we break into our morning groups. The book Little Hide and Seek Things that Go will be by the table and the
children will be asked to find the object in the book as well as the table. We will also go over our digital poster about the
functions and parts of a car and compare it to the bus. The other table area will have a bunch of recyclable products to
make their own cars anyway they like by exploring the materials. We can race their finished products down our ramps.
20-30 minutes
The second group time in the afternoon we will watch a short video from Sesame Street
http://www.sesamestreet.org/parents/topicsandactivities/toolkits/groverandkhokha/transportation and then we will look at
the picture file cards of the means of transportation and decide on which one we will build as a class. The rest of the
group time we will have out our dramatic play items, blocks, cars, and the Smartboard for all the children to interact in
whatever way they choose. 20 minutes
Days Four and Five and however long it takes.
Our morning routines will be the same and by this day we will have chosen what our class wants to build. All the
materials for any vehicle have been collected and can be used to make any type of car, plane or boat depending upon
the childrens choices. We will have our list of parts and for the vehicle needed and can go back outside and look and
touch anything that we may need again. Our children will split into two groups and we will get to work building our
vehicle. We will incorporate painting the vehicle once we get to that stage, wheels, windows, details that we have
learned to make them go and special. As we complete this project we will bring in our parents and show off our
transportation museum of all the items we have learned about and created.
Pre-Assessment:
I will ask the children to tell me what the word transportation means; if any one knows the answer I will then ask for
different types of examples. I will have the word transportation written up on our Smartboard and will then write the
examples the children provide. I will use the Smartboard and have a simple presentation that incorporates real pictures

of different means of transportation with the word.

Scoring Guidelines:
I will use a checklist and keep records of each childs comprehension as they are able to tell me what the word
means with scaffolding in the beginning and as the time progresses the ability to explain through words and
models different means of transportation.
Post-Assessment:
As we explore through field trips, hands on experiences, and creating of many forms of transportation our final
project will be to create a bus, train, bike or vehicle of the childrens choice. I will listen and record through the
same checklist used in pre-assessment if the child can tell the vehicle and describe its parts that we have
learned about and created over the course of the learning experience.
Scoring Guidelines:
I will be able to hear them identify the vehicles and parts to them.
Differentiated Instructional Support
Describe how instruction can be differentiated (changed or altered) to meet the needs of gifted or accelerated students:
For my older children I will engage them with our Smartboard and the web app from abcya.com called create a car. The
children will be able to pick the body of the car and then add all the parts as well as name their creation and see it drive
away on the screen. Another more challenging activity I would provide is to create their own vehicle with legos and race
them on our ramps.
Discuss additional activities you could do to meet the needs of students who might be struggling with the material: I will
have picture files of a bus, train, bike, car, plane, helicopter, fire truck, delivery truck, tractor, dump truck, garbage truck,
and a digger for the children to interact with each other and teacher. Our library will have many add on books fiction and
non-fiction as well as I will engage the students with building their own vehicles and racing them down our ramps. We
will have lots of activities where children can make their own car and add wheels and parts to enrich comprehension,
learning and engage in play.
Extension
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/arct14.ela.early.transportation/transportation/
This site is the hook video that shows different forms of transportation and their names.
http://www.abcya.com/create_and_build_car.htm
This site allows the children to build their own car, name it , describe it and watch it drive on the road and they can
control the speed.
http://www.sesamestreet.org/parents/topicsandactivities/toolkits/groverandkhokha/transportation
This is a Sesame Street video on ways kids from around the world go to school. It shows different cultures and ways of
transport.
The first site just reiterates the functions and differences in transportation and where they can be found in everyday life.
The second site gives the child the ability to freely create 30 different types of cars and watch them go. It also reinforces
the parts and their functions as they add them to their car. The third site ties in children from around the world going to
school.
Homework Options and Home Connections
I will ask parents to collect recyclable items such as water bottle caps (wheels), straws (axels), paper towel or TP tubes
(body of car), milk cartons and the like to create cars or boats with their children and either have races or describe their
parts and how they work. We will use these to add to our transportation museum at school.
Interdisciplinary Connections
I will use the opportunity of mathematics for counting and sorting parts to the vehicles as we collect data of the real

vehicle as well as we will take a count of how many wheels we used in our models, how many doors, windows and the
different parts to our car. The model piece also incorporates STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)
with young children!
Materials and Resources:

For teachers

For students

Smartboard, digital camera, smart phone, picture file cards of vehicles, books (fiction and non
fiction), paint, recyclable items (toilet paper tubes, toilet paper tubes, water bottle, caps, straws,
juice boxes), mystery box, glue, tape, construction paper, toy cars, trucks, dump trucks,
airplanes, sidewalk chalk, vocabulary list/cards, legos, dramatic play props, and people for the
vehicles.
Smartboard, recyclable materials, paint, markers, pencils, legos and their imaginations.

Key Vocabulary
Transportation, go, school bus, car, truck, wheels, parts, plane, fire truck, boat, drive, fly, and bike.
Additional Notes
I am truly lured day by day to this preschool age and I am amazed. When I plan a lesson I want it to be clear that it is
based on what I see these amazing children exploring and wanting to know more about and if the plan changes or
doesnt happen and a new one is created as we go about our day that is how I believe I will be the most effective teacher
in this age groups life. Giving them the freedom to explore life hands on and see and experience something they are
excited about is my job. It is through my observations of them that I will build the lessons around and they wont even
know the benefits of learning will just happen naturally.