How do cars and trucks go? Zoom, zoom. How do kids go? They go zoom, zoom too and more with these transportation movement activities.
Kids will often zoom around like cars and trucks complete with sound effects. We can add in a few ideas to extend their movement play. How would an airplane go? Kids spread their arms to be airplane wings and off they go. Arms move a different way for trains. Kids don’t see trains as much as we did, so you might have to show them how to pump their arms, but they usually know the choo-choo and toot-toot. Where we live all kids can do the ferry horn but it doesn’t go fast, fast. It’s always fun to gallop like horses.
You can suggest different kinds of cars and trucks. Fire engines, ambulances, and police cars are better to do outside. Kid-sirens can be kind of loud in the house. Rockets require top speed and need a big space, pardon the pun. Remember to count down before blasting off. Rowing a boat doesn’t need much room at all but it helps to have a partner.
To slow down the zooming, we can tell kids they need to put on the brakes. For some still time, turn yourself into a gas pump and say they have to come over and get some more gas in the tank. This is a great time to give some hugs while they get filled up.
Even though it may drive parents and caregivers crazy, kids absolutely must move. Motor activities are vital for children’s development. For bodies, ” it is during this unique period that children build the basic movement abilities…. ” (Rae Pica, Learning By Leaps and Bounds, NAEYC) For brains, movement plays a role in making connections that are involved in thinking skills. (Optimizing Early Brain and Motor Development Through Movement, Early Childhood News)
Kids have built-in motors so can you turn the key and let your child enjoy some transportation movement activities and play?