Activity Array

Here you'll find an array of activities for elementary children that can be used in Children's Ministry, after-school programs, in the classroom and by homeschoolers.

Tag Archives: cars


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Road Trips and Races

This theme can be adapted to fit several other themes or used as a stand-alone theme.

child-in-car

Behind the wheel

This theme goes great with chapter 1 of Dr. Dawn Huebner’s book, What to Do When Your Temper Flares.  See the Day 1 to Day 3 lessons called Behind the Wheel.

 

Community Worker: Mechanic

Happy Car Mechanic Holding Wrench

Extend it by talking more about Mechanics.  Take a field trip to a mechanic or invite a mechanic as a guest.

 

 

Road trips

Getting Started:  An Overview

  1. Discuss: road signs, car safety
  2. Follow up to Behind the Wheel and Chapter 1 of Temper Flares: Yesterday we talked about maintaining control even when there are challenges or we are in a hurry or tired. Rate your performance – High five if you maintained control today; 3 up if you did OK; thumb up if you need to call a tow truck to get you out of the ditch.
  3. Share time:  Tell about places you visited this summer

Snack & Nutrition

  1. Roadside Snack: granola bar or snack bar

Art & Crafts

  1. Paint a map OR a picture of where you might go or a sight you might see on the way
  2. Make a bingo game of things you might see along the road
    1. Click here for free Bingo games you can print
    2. Click here for a road sign scavenger hunt Bingo
    3. Or have kids draw one Car Bingo:car BINGO

Engineering & Science

  1. Building project: Make a road using road puzzles, blocks, track, etc.  Add hills, tunnels, corners, etc.

Word Fun

  1. Match a road sign to what it means.
    1. Online road sign memory game
    2. Here’s an online game.
  2. Read a map (this is easier if you have 2 identical maps) – tell a friend how to get from point A to point B – what roads to turn on without telling them where the destination.  Did they get to the right place?
    1. Here’s a simple map of USA with main highways
    2. For an online version go to SlidePlayer
    3. Get a map of your own city

Sports Zone/Games/Physical Fitness

  1. Car tag
  2. Green light Red light

On your mark, Get set, GO!

Getting Started:  An Overview

  1. Discuss: race cars, types of races, safety features, etc.
    1. Fun facts from thrillest
    2. Fan facts from NASCAR
    3. Read a cool book about race cars
  2. What are some types of race cars?  Why are they made that way? – principles of aerodynamics

Snack & Nutrition

  1. Food race:  how fast can you eat _______ — race at Go!  or time it.  (suggested items:  a cup of yogurt or applesauce)

Art & Crafts

  1. Race car – paint wooden race cars  OR color printed race cars  OR design & draw a race car
  2. Race flags – make a checkered flag

Engineering & Science

  1. Building project: Rubber band power
    1.  Build a K’nex rubber band car
  1. With older kids or adult help you can build a rubber-band powered boat
  1. Another option:  Get out the race track and your stash of cars and have a race.   You can make a ramp using a stack of books with a piece of cardboard leaning against them.  Find out which cars go faster.

Word Fun

  1. Write about a race
  2. Be the sports caster for your friends’ race with the cards they made

Fitness Play

  1. Races!   Set up a start line and finish line.  Run forwards.  Run backwards.  Race sideways.  Race a with a partner side by side with arms over each-others’ shoulder.  ….

Pit Stop

Getting Started:  An Overview

  1. Why do race car drivers have to take pit stops?  (“…However, the car that made the additional pit stop will run faster on the race track than cars that did not make the stop, both because it can carry a smaller amount  (and thus lower weight) of fuel, and will also have less wear on its tires, providing more traction and allowing higher speeds in the corners.”)  read more
  1. What does the pit crew do during a pit stop?  (add fuel, change tires, and take care of any other problems.)
  2. Do you think we need pit stops?  (yes)  What’s important for us to do during our pit stop?  How do we fuel up?  (eat, drink water, take a break or rest)  Doing that helps us feel good and have self-control.

Snack & Nutrition

  1.  Make a menu for a healthy meal or snack

Art and Crafts

  1. Color a picture of a mechanic working
  2. Decorate a frame with nuts.  This makes a great gift for Dad or Grandpa, too

Engineering & Science

  1. Get out your spare tire.  Add some good size bots and nuts and a wrench set.  Let the kids put on and take off the nuts and bolts with the wrenches.  Don’t want to get out the tire?  Cut cardboard on a circle like a tire or use the cardboard that was under the pizza you had last night.  Punch some holes to put in the bolts.

Fun with Words

  1. How many other words can you make using the letters in “PIT STOP”

Fitness Play

  1. Take a break and get outside and play.  Moving your muscles and getting fresh air and sunshine is good for relaxation and stress relief.

 

Continue this unit based on ” What to Do When Your Temper Flares” by going to the theme, Perspectives based on chapter 2, A Secret About Anger.

 


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In The Driver’s Seat

Day 1 — In the Driver’s Seat

Getting Started: An Overview

  1. Read What to Do When Your Temper Flares by Dr. Dawn Huebner Chapter 1a
  2. Lead a discussion on how a person cares for their car and ways we care for ourselves.  Make the point that just like a car, we need fuel, to keep clean, check-ups, and safety rules.  Taking care of ourselves is part of self-control.
  3. Put each of the above categories on a poster, as Dr. Huebner suggests on page 8 and 9.  One option is to have the 4 posters around the room for everyone to draw on.  Another option is to give everyone 4 small pieces of paper to draw on, label with name and then glue them onto the poster.
  4. ANNOUNCE: You may bring a radio controlled toy next time.

Snack & Nutrition

  1. Poster 1:  Draw a ‘fuel’ (healthy food) you enjoy – eating healthy food keeps car (body) running well.  Draw or put your picture on poster 1.
  2. Healthy food collage — Cut out a healthy food item from a magazine or the newspaper.

Art & Crafts

  1. Poster 2:  Draw something you use to keep yourself clean.  Draw or put your picture on poster 2.
  2. Soap art —
    1. This activity is for older kids.  Using Ivory Soap and a table knife.  http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Soap-Carving
    2. Put a new bar of Ivory soap in the microwave and see the magic.  http://www.cometogetherkids.com/2012/01/ivory-soap-explosion.html
  3. Design a steering wheel – cut out the lower portions of a divided plate, leaving the raised portions that look like a steering wheel; decorate with markers

Construction

  1. Build a vehicle you would like to drive using Lego, K’nex, or your favorite construction toy.
  2. Poster 3:  Draw a tool that gets used when you have a check-up (at dentist/doctor office)

Fitness Play

  1. Poster 4: Illustrate or write a safety rule you have to follow
  2. Play Red Light, Green Light

Day 2 — Radio Controlled

Getting Started — An Overview

  1. Follow-up and review chapter 1a of What to do When Your Temper Flares.  Have you been caring for your ‘vehicle’ (your body)?
    • Who fueled up properly with a healthy meal with fruits and vegetables?
    • Who cared for your body by cleaning it?  (washing hands, bathing, or brushing teeth, etc.)
    • Who followed some safety rules today?  Which ones?
  2. How are radio/remote controlled cars controlled?
  3. Who brought a radio/remote controlled vehicle?  Set guidelines for sharing and using

Art & Crafts

  1. String puppet — Those artistically minded might like the challenge of making  a string puppet they can control.  Note how one cross stick controls the legs and one cross stick controls the arms.  The perpendicular stick controls the head.
    1. Image titled 179028 8 String Marionette
    2. peanut popcorn puppetPaper cup string puppet

You will need:
A darning needle. A reel of strong thread.
Packing peanuts
Paint, paint brushes, glue, scissors, wool for hair, eyes, icecream sticks or twigs.

Procedure:  Thread the needle and make a large knot in the end. To make the head and body, thread three long peanuts on to the length of thread. (You may need to twist the needle a bit to get it through the shell). Leave a long thread above the head. To make the hands, arms, and legs, string long and small peanuts to the body as shown.

Remember to tie knots in the thread so that the peanuts won’t fall off.

Paint the puppet, and leave it to dry. Glue wool on the head to make hair. Leave the long thread above the head free of hair and glue.

Make the control stick by gluing three sticks together as shown. Attach the control threads as shown. Tie the hands to the front cross-piece and the feet to the back. Tie the head to the centre control stick. Dab glue on to the control stick where the threads are tied. This will stop the threads from slipping.

Engineering & Science

  1. Operate Radio controlled vehicles
  2. How they work – continue article from how stuff works

Fun with Words

  1. Tell how a person controls a puppet or radio-controlled car.
  2. Using the acronym CONTROL, write an acrostic poem

Fitness Play

  1. Radio controlled vehicles
  2. Red light Green light

Day 3 — Traveling

Getting Started – An Overview

  1. Read What to Do When Your Temper Flares by Dr. Dawn Huebner Chapter 1b
  2. Discuss: Decisions you can make for yourself.  Rules you have to follow.  Bumpy roads —  challenges in life.

Snack & Nutrition

  1. Rocky road mix – marshmallows, chocolate chips, graham cereal, small pretzels

Art & Crafts

  1. Where would you like to travel to?  Draw a picture or make a 3-D diorama

The Nature of It/Construction/Science

  1. Building project:  Using K’nex or Lego’s and your creativity make a vehicle that would take you where you would like to travel.  (Are you going on a highway, dirt road, out in space, or across the ocean?)

Fun With Words

  1. Write a story that tells where you would like to travel and what you would do.  What exciting experience might you have?
  2. Make a poster that shows or tells  what decisions you make throughout the day  (ex: what to wear, what to eat, who to play with, colors to use on your paper….)

Fitness Play

  1. Go outside for free choice play
  2. image028

    travel partners

    Car Traveling — Form partners.  Partners place arms over the others’ shoulders and thus form a ‘car’.  The left partner is the driver and controls where the ‘car’ goes.  The right partner is the passenger.

    1. Option 1:  Go through an obstacle course set up with cones and ropes lying on the ground.
    2. Option 2:  Play tag — Have two or three ‘cars’ that are ‘it’.  Other players go from one side to the other of the playing field.  If the car passenger tags a person they need to get in the back seat of the car and put one hand on either the driver or passenger’s shoulder.  They also can tag a person.  When a second person is tagged, they also get in the back seat and place a hand on the shoulder of either the driver or passenger. Now the car is full so you have two options:
      1. Option A:  The first car that gets full is the winner.
      2. Option B:  A full car splits so that the people in the back seat also become a ‘car’ and the game continues.

Are You In the Driver’s Seat?

Getting Started:  An Overview:

  1. Are you in the Driver’s Seat?
  2. Being in the driver’s seat means that we have self-control.  There are a lot of things we have to control about our selves.  We need to control what we say, how we show our emotions, what we eat, what we watch and listen to, what we do, when we do our homework, how we show respect, and so much more.  Think about your personal goals for self-control.  You will have an opportunity to write about it later.

Snack & Nutrition

  1. Snack:  Make a snack mix you can eat while you travel.  Suggested ingredients:  (Chex cereal, chocolate chips, gummy fruit or candy, raisins, small Ritz crackers)
  2. Teddy Graham in Banana Car

Art & Crafts

    1. shoulder strap

      Seat belt shoulder strap – make with felt/foam and adhesive Velcro  and decorate

      1. Cut felt or foam so that it is a 8×6 inch rectangle.  You can cut a 8×12 inch felt rectangle in half.
      2. Fold felt in half lengthwise (hot-dog fold)
      3. Attach Velcro.
      4. Decorate with markers or stick on felt decor

 

    1. in driver's seat plaque

      In Driver’s Seat

      Make a plaque to remind you to maintain control, as the driver cut out car either draw your face or attach a picture of you and put on plaque – may add bouncy pizzaz by making paper springs and gluing them between the car and plaque.  Get a copy of the Driver’s seat plaque.

 

 

The Nature of It/Construction/Science

  1. Clothespin Car — using clothespin, twisty ties, straw, buttons, and a pony bead
    clothespin car

    Clothespin race car

    1. cut a straw in 1 inch pieces.  You will use 2 pieces per car.
    2. Put a twisty tie through 2 holes in a button so the button is in the middle and the ends are the same length.
    3. Thread both ends of the twisty through 1 straw piece.
    4. Put a second button wheel on by putting the ends of the same twisty through 2 button holes of the 2nd button and then twist the ends of the twisty together.  Now you have 1 axle with 2 button wheels.
    5. Make a 2nd axle with button wheels the same way.
    6. Open the clothespin and place one axle where the groove is.  Put a pony bead at the end of the clothespin.  Close the clothespin so that it bites the clothespin as shown.
    7. Put the 2nd axle between the back of the clothespin where you pinch it.
    8. Roll your car and have races.

Take the Challenge/Read/Write/Homework/Educational Games

  1. Write your goal for how you want to have better self-control.  Remember there are a lot of ways to show self-control.  We need to control what we say, how we show our emotions, what we eat, what we watch and listen to, what we do, when we do our homework, how we show respect, and so much more.  Everyday we can choose to make wise choices and practice self-control.
  2. Goal: Write goal on a card  3×5 – I want to control my temper better; I want to show more respect; I want to get my homework done on time;  I want to be a better friend….

Fitness Play

  1. Play Car Traveling with a buddy either as an obstacle course or as tag.  See the directions above.

 

Cheerful couple enjoying in the car ride. [url=http://www.istockphoto.com/search/lightbox/9786786][img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40117171/couples.jpg[/img][/url]

Road trip

Make this a full week by continuing the car theme.

Go to Road Trips and Races.