Ten Summer Activities You Can Do Together: Cars and Trucks and Planes and Trains OH MY!

 ZOOOOOOOOM and VROOOOOOM!  CHOO CHOO!  Select a book about cars, trucks or other moving objects such as an airplane or train from the library and read the story with your child.  Then, help reinforce the sounds, actions and names of the objects by trying one or all of these activities.  You can do these at the library, at home, at the park, at the pool, or wherever you find time together! 

1. Count all the blue (or red or green or brown, etc.) trucks you see
2. Sing Wheels On The Bus or Wheels on the Car
3. Draw a picture of the car you would like
4. Help Mom & Dad or Grandma & Grandpa wash the family car
5. Find a box and make a car
6. Use wheels and paint to make tracks on paper
7. Read a book about different types of trains
8. Use the lid of a pot as a steering wheel and pretend to drive a _(Choose car, truck, etc.)_ to the _(Choose a location such as the store)_
9. What words rhyme with car? What words rhyme with plane? What words rhyme with truck? What words rhyme with train?
10. Use small toy cars to form the 1st initial of your name

Terrific Twos: Buses go BEEP! BEEP!

It's Terrific Two Year Old time!  We are continuing with our animated theme of 'Things that GO!' and sharing rhymes and books about BUSES!  Our selection of rhymes, songs and stories encourages active play and thoughtful fun for kids who like motion and movement.  Children will use hands and feet throughout the rhymes to create activity, such as wheels going around in a circle, waving arms like airplane or walking back and forth.  Such simplicity engages children's imaginations.

If I Were a Bus or a Car Rhyme
If I were a bus or a car,
I would roll down the road.  (roll hands)
If I were a truck,
I’d dump my heavy load.  (let hands fall)
If I were an airplane,
I would fly up in the sky.  (spread arms like wings)
If I were a boat,
I’d make waves as I went by.  (make wave motions)
If I were a train,
I’d chug along the tracks.  (pump arms like train)
But since I’m a person,
I will walk there and back.  (walking motion)

The Wheels on the Bus (From our friends at the King County Library System)
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
Round and round, round and round,
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
All through the town.

The people on the bus go up and down,
Up and down, up and down,
The people on the bus go up and down,
All through the town.
The money on the bus goes clink, clink, clink,
Clink, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink,
The money on the bus goes clink, clink, clink,
All through the town.

Repeat the song using other elements of the bus such as the wipers or the horn:
The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish…
The horn on the bus goes beep, beep, beep…
The babies on the bus go wah, wah, wah…
The driver on the bus says move on back…
The doors on the bus go open and shut…
The grandmothers on the bus go knit, knit, knit…
The grandfathers on the bus go ZZZ, ZZZ, ZZZ…
The mothers on the bus say I Love You…
The fathers on the bus say I Love You Too…
All through the town.

We read these stories about buses at Terrific Twos: 

Maisy Drives the Bus by Lucy Cousins
Maisy the mouse picks up an assortment of passengers as she drives her bus. 
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Bus Stop by Janet Morgan Stoeke
Kindergartners gather for their exciting first ride on the school bus.
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Wonderful Ones: Toot! Toot! Beep! Beep!

This week at Wonderful Ones we have the fun of songs and rhymes with car and train action!  You'll use gentle movements to help baby learn about the space around them, such as, clapping hands to the rhythm, nodding and shaking heads for yes and no, and bouncing baby on your lap to mimic the bumps along the road or tracks.  Using these songs, rhymes and books, you are helping to introduce new words and sounds to your child, which helps him or her develop a bigger vocabulary.    

We Can Rhyme
We can jump, jump, jump,
We can hop, hop, hop,
We can clap, clap, clap,
We can stop, stop, stop.
We can nod our heads for yes,
We can shake our heads for no,
We can bend our knees a tiny bit,
And sit down slow.

Car Ride Song (Sing while bouncing baby on lap)
This is the way the car goes,
Bumpity, bumpity, bump.
This is the way the car goes,
Bumpity, bumpity, bump.
Oh, oh, there’s a hole in the road,
Bumpity, bumpity, BUMP!

The Little Train Rhyme
The little train went up the track, (hand runs up arm)
It went toot, toot,
And then it came back.
The other train went up the track, (other arm)
It went toot, toot,
And then came back.

The little train went up the track, (hand runs up arm)
It went toot, toot,
And then it came back.
The other train went up the track, (other arm)
It went toot, toot,
And then came back.

We read these books at Wonderful Ones this week:

Beep!  Beep!  Peekaboo! by Dawn Sirett
As babies play hide-and-seek with their toys, readers can open the flaps to discover where the textured toys are hiding. 
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A Red Train by Bernette Ford
Come take a ride with animals in a book that covers two concepts--colors and forms of transportation. A charming cat looks happily out the window of a red train , a bunny rides in a yellow rocket , and there's also a blue car, orange submarine, green bus, purple boat, and more!
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Terrific Twos: Cars Go VROOM!

It's Terrific Two Year Old time!  Our theme over the next several weeks will be 'Things That Go!' beginning with everyone's favorite, CARS!   Our selection of rhymes, songs and stories encourages active play and thoughtful fun for kids who like motion and movement.  In this week's rhymes and stories, children will also learn concepts such as numbers and counting through repetition and singing.  They also learn about how a car works which helps them put together words and ideas in order to make connections and understand words in print.   


Five Little Cars 
One little car,
It happened to be blue,
Met another car,
Then there were two.

Two little cars
Driving by the sea.
One drove up from the beach,
Then there were three.

Three little cars
Driving by the store,
Another pulled out,
Then there were four.

Four little cars
Out for a drive.
Another car joined them,
Then there were five.

Open the Door Rhyme
Open the car door, climb inside.
I wish I could help my Mommy drive.
Fasten our seatbelts, shut the door.
Start the motor, hear it roar…vroom…vroom…
Turn the corner, step on the gas.
Sometimes we go slow and sometimes we go fast.

We read these books at this week's Terrific Twos:

My Car by Byron Barton
Sam describes in loving detail his car and how he drives it.
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Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car by John Burningham
Mr. Gumpy's human and animal friends squash into his old car and go for a drive -- until it starts to rain.
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The Life of a Car by Susan Steggall
Follow the life of a car as it is built, sold, delivered, and in the end recycled to build a new car! 
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