From the dining room I could hear the sounds of a happy little boys–zoom, crash, beep, beep.  I looked over and he was playing with the wooden car track his dad had made him and his cars.  As a parent one of the delights I’ve had over the past 10 years is listening in on their play.  Oh how my heart finds great delight in their conversations, in their pretend play and in the mere car noises that came of their little lips even before they could speak.

This week I’ve been working on different activities that go with his love of cars. I’ve come up with ideas to help my little man practice his numbers, colors and letters. Here’s one of them!

Preschool Learning: Number Recognition Car Activity

Basically, you’ll need two tracks made from whatever butters your biscuit. As I mentioned above my husband made my little guy a wooden track this past weekend so that’s what he’s been enamored with lately.  But prior to this he used wooden planks, books and pretty much anything that could serve as a ramp for his cars.

We’ve had a little under a month of no school so I decided just to stick numbers 1-6.  Tomorrow we’ll add the rest–he knows how to count to 15.  Pick out your cars and label them. I couldn’t find our masking tape, it’s always gone in our house.  So, I used labels. Now on a sheet of paper make parking spaces for the same amount of numbers you used on the cars. Place the cars in a pile so you can see all the numbers.  My son started off with just one car but eventually we were racing two cars down his track.

When he picked up a car he had to say the number as it raced down the track. Then when it landed he would have to pick it up and park it in the right place and say the number again.

He did this for at least 30 minutes of organized play and then continued playing his own thing afterwards. This would be a fun game for a party or in the classroom!