Introduction
Introduction
1. What types of transportation do you use
in your own lives?
2. If the only way to travel was to walk,
what would you not be able to do?
3. Why might people long ago have begun to
travel?
4. How has transportation changed since early
times?
5. Why are there so many types of transportation?
6. Why do you think that people invented the
car, train, ships, or other types of transportation?
7 What would be the best way to go from
your house to the grocery store? Why?
Compare and contrast two different vehicles.
8. What is the difference between cars and
trains?
9. What is the difference between boats and
planes?
1. Initiating Activity: Invite students to share places they have visited and the means of transportation they used to reach their destinations. Define transportation as a way of traveling from one place to another. Then invite children to name places they would like to visit, listing responses on the board. Ask students how they would get to some of these locations, encouraging them to name alternate means of transportation for each.
2. Pair various means of transportation, and have students tell which they think is faster. For example: walking and car, car and train, bus and train, car and airplane. Then have students tell which method of transportation they think is fastest of all, and which is slowest.
Song:
This is the Way We Row a Boat
(Tune "Here We Go 'Round
the Mulberry Bush)
This is the way we row a boat,
Row a boat, row a boat.
This is the way we row a boat,
Early in the morning.
This is the way we fly a plane...
Next verses:
Drive a car...
Ride a horse...
Cars, Trucks, Buses & Motorcycles
Day 1
Question: How did you get to school today?
1. I will discuss with students how a bus is like a car or a truck and how the they are different. (they all move on wheels, have engines, need gas; bus is larger, carries more people, travels a certain route, etc.) I will invite children to share bus experiences. I will describe how some buses travel across town, while others travel longer distances. I will talk about why people might take a bus rather than a car. As a class we will graph they way in which each student came to school. The children will draw the mode of transportation in which they came to school: bus, car, train, van or a picture of themselves walking. We will create bar graphs using the students pictures. How many walked? How many rode the bus? How many rode in a car, van or pickup? (We will use math terms such as: equal, unequal, greater, less than, more or less)
2 .Discuss: Cars, trucks, buses, use different types of fuel.
Activity:
Have each child make their own driver's license.
A
copy of a Student Driver's License to print (link).
Song: The Wheels on the Bus
Craft: School
Bus
Planes, Hot Air Balloons, Helicopters
and Rockets
1. Today we will discuss the different types of air travel
Science activity:
On a windy day, take the children outside and
let them feel the wind in their face. Show them swings moving in
the wind. Have students sit in a swing and pull up their feet so
they are not touching the ground. If they feel the wind move them,
say that it is turbulence. Explain that this is like what happens
to an airplane.
2. Discuss: Planes
3. Discuss: Helicopters
4. Discuss: Rockets
5. Discuss: Hot Air Balloons
Science
Gravity
Classroom Activity: Today I will introduce the students to the idea of the Law Of Gravity. Following our discussion I will do place a ping pong ball above a hair blow dryer and turn it on. I will ask the kids what they think might be holding it up. When I turn the blow dryer off, I will ask the students what they think caused the ball to fall. I will pick several of the students to hold the blow dryer and try this experiment. "What goes up must come down."
Student Activity: Rockets
We will make a rocket ship.
Materials needed: A straw, a pencil, scotch tape, one sheet of typing
paper per student, scissors
1. Fold the sheet of paper to form a square, fold and cut on the fold.
You should have one square and one rectangle left.
2. Starting with a corner of the square, roll it around the pencil,
not to tight. When you have completed this, tape the cylinder. Cut the
tips of each end so that they are flat and not pointed.
3. Pick up the rectangle piece and fold it, (picture rocket ship wings)
cut out triangles, you will have 4 triangles, so save 2 of them.
4. Tape the rectangle pieces near the bottom of the cylinder.
5. Take the cylinder and fold the top part over, tape it. The cylinder
needs to be air tight in the top.
6. Students will place the straw inside the rockets and shoot them
in the air.
Optional: The students can color and draw designs on their rocket ships.
Boats and Ships
Day 3
Song: Row Row
Row Your Boat
Row, row, row your boat,
gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
life is but a dream.
Books:
Blinky the Lighthouse Ship
by Ruth Roberts
Hercules, The Harbor Tug by
Michael O'Hearn
The Big Book of Real Boats and Ships
by George J. Zaffo
Activity:
1. Water Transportation/Boat building
with styrofoam egg cartons. Cut out each individual cup, have students
put a tooth pick with a small square sail attached inside each cup. The
students will use a small amount of clay to get the toothpick to stand
up. They can place the sail boat in a small container of water and blow
them around.
Science
Experiment: Ships Float : Buoyancy
Questions:
1. Why do some objects float?
2. Why do some objects sink?
Trains & Subways & Streetcars
Day 4 & 5
Group Activity: We will encourage the kindergartners
to make a “human train”, “choo-choo-ing” around the classroom.
In advance, we will draw chalk tracks for the train to follow. We
will teach the students these traditional whistle signals:
--Stop: one short toot
--Go: two long toots
--Stop at the next station: three short toots
We will have children line up, each with
his/her hands resting on the waist of the person in
front. Let children take turns being
the engineer, riding in the front car, or the
locomotive. The engineer can wear
a cap, and use the whistle to signal the rest of the
cars to stop, go, or get ready to stop
at the next station.
Language Arts: Trains
We will list all the things we can think
of about trains. As the students give their answers, I will write them
on the white board. When we have finished, I will ask the students to complete
the following sentences. I will list their answers.
The train was as long as a__________.
The steam engine was blowing smoke as black as
a___________.
The caboose was follow at the end of the train
looking like a________________.
The caboose was as red as a___________________.
The train was as long as a_____________________.
I love to watch a train________________________.
I love to count the___________________________.
I like to hear the____________________________.
A fast moving train reminds me of____________________.
The sound of a train makes me feel happy because_________________.
The sound of a train makes me feel sad because___________________.
Song: Little Red
Caboose
Little red caboose, little red caboose,
Little red caboose, behind the train.
Smoke stack on its back, coming down the track,
Little red caboose, behind the train.
Little red caboose, little red caboose,
Little red caboose, behind the train.
Coming round the bend, hanging on the end,
Little red caboose behind the train.
Books:
Freight Train by Donald Crews
Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
Puff'n Toot
I'm Taking a Trip on My Train by Shirley
Neitzel
Big Blue Engine by Ken Wilson-Max
Facts
About Railroads
Kaboose
Kids Korne
Pictures
of Trains
Freight
Train: Lesson
Literature
Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall
How Will You Get There?
Freight Train by Donald Crews
Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
Puff'n Toot
I'm Taking a Trip on My Train by Shirley
Neitzel
Blinky the Lighthouse Shipby
Ruth Roberts
Hercules, The Harbor Tugby
Michael O'Hearn
The Big Book of Real Boats and Ships
by George J. Zaffo
Big Blue Engine by Ken Wilson-Max
Katie
and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton: K-2nd
The
Wheels on the Bus by Maryann Kovalski: Lesson
ARIZONA STATE STANDARDS
Reading
| I | R-R1, R-R2, R-R3 |
Mathematics
| I | 2M-R1, 1M-R3, 2M-R1, 2M-R3, 5M-R1, 5M-R2, 5M-R3 |
Writing
| I |
Science
| I | 1SC-R1, 1SC-R2, 1SC-R3, 2SC-R1, 1SC-R4, 3SC-R1, 1SC-R6 |
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