Transportation

Books

🌿🌻Leo on a Hike by Anna McQueen
Leo & Daddy go for a hike with a snack, finding leaves, prints, a feather, and many other special things. For part of the hike Leo is carried by Daddy, and for parts of the hike he walks. This book features simple text and nice illustrations by Ruth Hearson.

🌿🌻Mrs. Peanuckle’s Hiking Alphabet*
I’m no great fan of alphabet books for young children, so believe me when I say that the Mrs. Peanuckle alphabet books offer quality content with a great thematic message. This book will absolutely be joining my personal library soon! (see also, Mrs. Peanuckle’s Tree Alphabet)

🌻Rosa Rides Her Scooter by Jessica Spanyol
In this simple illustrated board book, Rosa takes her scooter out, has a bit of a crash, fixes her scooter, uncertainly explores a ramp, races her friend Sarah, explores a rocky path, and cleans off her scooter. Like other books in the Rosa collection, there is a diverse cast of characters freely exploring interests and activities that young girls are too often redirected away from.

🌿The Boat that Ben Built by Jen Lynn Bailey
This reimagining of classic nursery rhyme “This is the House that Jack Built” takes us on a journey down a river and past many different animals of the American Northwoods. One of my favorite thigns about this lovely book is that Ben’s mother is neither absent nor looming, calmly watching him from the shore as their dog walks alongside her. Even better, each animal featured gets a one-page spread about them at the end of the book.

🌿The Rain Train by Elena De Roo
This illustrated board book uses rhythm, rhyme, and plenty of onomatopoeia to describe a train that carries passengers through the rain, the storms, the winds, and the nighttime landscapes. The pattering and swishing sounds of the train blend with the sounds of the rain outside the home of a sleeping child. Less fanciful than Steam Train, Dream Train, this story manages to somehow be more magical.

🌿Wonder: A Song of the Seasons by Julia Key (illustrated by Helen Cann)
Two girls bike through the country, observing fields, shorelines, neighborhoods, and wild landscapes in all seasons.

🌿All Aboard the Alaska Train by Brook Hartman (illustrated by John Joseph)
In rhythm and rhyme, this picture book depicts the wild landscapes of Alaska and introduces children to the native Alaskan wildlife visitors might see along the Alaska Railroad. The illustrations add a degree of silliness, with more and more animals appearing in train windows after each stop. The passengers assist the encumbered train over Mount Denali and view the Northern Lights before arriving in Fairbanks. The book’s index features an educational map of the Alaska Railroad’s route as well as a diagram and glossary of train parts.

🌿Grandad’s Camper by Henry Woodgate
Grandad and Gramps used to tour the country in their camper van, but Grandad stoped traveling after Gramps died. Inspired by stories of their wandering youth, their granddaughter helps Grandad fix up the old camper and rediscover the joy of traveling–together.

🌿Maybe a Whale by Kristen Pendreigh
A girl and her mother kayak out on the sea searching for the whales her late grandfather loved. They observe jellyfish & seals before camping overnight on the shore. As they view the stars and remember Grandpa around the campfire, they hear the whales surfacing nearby and listen to the sounds of the humpbacks they know are out there in the darkness. This book explores concepts of memorial, nature, and the mystery of the dark sea and sky.

The Noon Balloon by Margaret Wise Brown
Two children embark on a hot air balloon ride, journeying far into the sky, visiting wonderous places, and observing many animals before returning home. This story is actually unrelated to the Margaret Wise Brown song of the same name.

We All Go Traveling By by Sheena Roberts
This simple book illustrates the children’s song of the same name. It depicts many different types of vehicles that a child might use to get to school.

Away in my Airplane by Margaret Wise Brown
A child flies a small airplane up and up into the sky, rising above the birds and people and flying through sun and rain and day and night. This book features beautiful illustrations to go with Brown’s poetic rhymes.

Creative Art Opportunities

🚂Traffic light collage – black paper with red, yellow, and green circles
🚂Brush painting with white on red octagonal paper
🚂Sponge painting with black on square yellow or orange paper
🚂Driving vehicles wheels through paint on paper
🚂Collage with red, yellow, and green dots on black paper
🚂Collage with black dots and paint on yellow paper

Hands On Experiences

⛅️Explore toy boats in a water table
⛅️Make paper boats and test them in water
⛅️Make paper airplanes and test them in an open space
⛅️Explore ramps with toy vehicles
⛅️Build train tracks/roads out of blocks or tiles
🌿Drive cars & trucks in the grass
🌿Drive cars, trucks, and trains on a sidewalk
🌿Explore *discontinued* train tracks (there’s a set at Hidden Pond Park in Burnsville, MN with trees growing through them)
🌿Take bikes out for a ride along a favorite trail!

Songs to Learn and Sing

“Riding in my Car” – Woody Guthrie
(Excerpts here from Elizabeth Mitchell’s cover “Car Car”)

Take me riding in the car, car
Take me riding in the car, car
Take you riding in the car, car
Take you riding in the car

Click clack, open up the door, girls
Click clack, open up the door, boys
Front door, back door, clickety clack
Take you riding in the car

The engine it goes vroom, vroom
The engine it goes vroom, vroom
Front seat, backseat, boys and girls
Take you riding in my car

And I’m gonna let you blow the horn
I’m gonna let you blow the horn
I’m gonna let you blow that horn
Take you riding in my car

“Train Song” – Charlie Hope

I hear the train… in the distance…
Woo woooooo
I hear the train… getting closer…
Woo woooooo (woo wooo)

And I can stomp my feet to the beat of the train, one, two
And I can pull my arm to the beat of the train, one, two
Woo Woooooo
Woo Woooooo

I hear the train…. through the valley
Woo Woooooo
I heat the train…. echo through the tunnel…
Woo Woooooo

And I can stomp my feet to the beat of the train, one, two
And I can pull my arm to the beat of the train, one, two
Woo Woooooo
Woo Woooooo

And I can clap my hands to the beat of the train, one, two
And I can nod my head to the beat of the train, one, two
Whoo Whoooooo
Whoo Whoooooo

“Row Row Row Your Boat”

“The Wheels on the Bus”

“Down By the Station”

NIYN – Transportation on Spotify
All playlists are works in progress and are actively curated when I have a unit in play or preparation, so new songs may appear and old songs may be removed if they don’t suit my designs.