Transport Resources Your Favourites?

[Guest]

Hi all,

 

Back to thinking about our new term ahead, we decided to follow the children's interests and for 3 weeks we will be focusing on Trains, cars and fire engines. I was wondering if anyone out there had any fabulous ideas we could use to bring this to life and inspire the children? In particular i am thinking of our boys who don't naturally enjoy mark making - surprise surprise and the girls so it isn't too macho!!

 

Please help...

[Rea]

When I last did transport I took a small group of boys outside to look at the cars in the car park. There was a motorbike which caused a lot of interest so I got paper and pencils and asked them if they could draw all the pipes and cogs to show the other children. We'd never seen it in the car park before so i told them it might go before the others had a chance to see it. The results were amazing. Lots of detail and some writing to show everyone what was what. These boys were usually not interested in writing or even drawing so I was really pleased with the outcome. Maybe you could arrange for a vehical to come along that they wouldnt normally see? We also had a visit from a limo and a reliant robin.

[Guest]

i had sucess by accident one day, when one of the bikes broke, i said i needed to write a sign for it and he wrote one too!

 

we have also written road signs for the outside area

 

how about putting the cars out with large pieces of paper and getting them to draw their own roads etc etc, this worked well when we used the floor, at one point if we taped the paper put to the table the cars disappeared and we ended up with names and flowers on the paper which while great was not what we had inteneded, as that particular group of girls would write and draw all morning.

 

how about drawing a race track on a piece of a4 and getting them to use a pencil to pretend they are a car- by race track i mean as basic as 2 ovals, i used this with a boy with global delay and he had a wonderful time driving round and round and round the track, all i was doing was drawing a track( calling them ovals is probably wrong) sometimes we added a car or obstacle that he had to go round we even had a burger stand which he drove up to, it was very fast very roughly drawn but representive enough for him to enjoy and you could see where he had avoidid something or drove through it( puddle).

[Inge]

we used my car in the car park outside and opened the bonnet to look at the engine, children had clipboards/paper to record on .. chatted about it and then took pictures .. these I printed A4 size and had them on the mark making table.. and also the craft area.. where some made 3d models using boxes tubes etc

 

they talked about this and used the pictures for ages...

 

Ask if any dads have a motorbike... my son used to come in with his at regular intervals... and we had a local police station who would often send a policeman on a bike and a car if they could.

 

 

also the paint and wheels always a popular one, especially outdoors with the bikes

 

Inge

[Guest]

Oh my goodness, i knew you lot were fabulous but didn't expect replies so soon! Thank you everyone for your input. I now have a full itinery of ideas for cars and can use some of them for the others, has anyone got any specific ideas for trains? Cheeky i know!

[Rea]

You could start with Thomas the Tank, usually popular. Have you got wheels and cogs or could you think of some way to make the wheels to show how they are powered, the inners of wrapping paper attached to the lids off biscuit tins? I havent been to our Science museum for years but there used to be a steam train in there which would move along a short piece of track, could you access a museum or some sort? Speed? When the first steam trains came along the victorians thought we would suffocate at speeds over 15mph was it? How about music that gives the impression of travelling along the tracks, I think theres a famous piece. Monorail, trams, metro, steam, channel tunnel, steam, diesel, electric.

Just googled railway music, and found this http://www.amazon.com/Steam-Railway-Effect...s/dp/B000001HQU. Any good?

[Cait]

Pistons using two different sizes of cardboard tube, syringes in the water tray to show the pressure,

 

Bit of a bugbear of mine, please call it Thomas the Tank ENGINE though, it's not a tank like the army use

 

Could you build railway lines with Brio or Duplo or whatever, or get some nice big sheets of card to draw tracks -mine enjoy that, and draw stations and sheds and water tanks etc along the line.

 

For some children, making a fire using coal could be a novelty, not round here though, although they had never seen it used to boil a kettle to make steam!

Edited December 29, 2009 by Cait

[Guest]

You are just fabulous - thank you!

[Guest]

if you want to look at the workings of trains then there is a new Haynes manual ( they usually write in depth books about cars) all about thomas the tank engine my son is fasinated by it. he brought it in to my bed at 6.30 this morning to explain all the workings!! in fact he has it in bed with him now!

[Guest]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url=se...p;x=13&y=20

 

 

hopefully that is a link to the book on amazon- but i have never posted a link before!

 

also i am shocked Haynes do not just do car manuals any more!

[Cait]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url=se...p;x=13&y=20

 

 

hopefully that is a link to the book on amazon- but i have never posted a link before!

 

also i am shocked Haynes do not just do car manuals any more!

 

They do manuals about babies too! Daleks, Spitfires - it's endless!

[Guest]

if you want to look at the workings of trains then there is a new Haynes manual ( they usually write in depth books about cars) all about thomas the tank engine my son is fasinated by it. he brought it in to my bed at 6.30 this morning to explain all the workings!! in fact he has it in bed with him now!

 

Where would i find such a brilliant maunal? Amazon?

[Cait]

Where would i find such a brilliant maunal? Amazon?

 

Yup, they have it

[Guest]

Where would i find such a brilliant maunal? Amazon?

 

Sorry, serves me right for getting excited and not reading all the posts! Thank you, but it was a good guess !!

[Guest]

would often send a policeman on a bike and a car if they could

 

We use the local park ranger who tours on a bike