What are some car-themed tot trays I can do with my child?

I set these trays out last week so Smiley Man has actually done them for a few days. He really likes having his own “work” to do, but he still likes to occasionally wreak havoc with Little Bear’s work. I’m thinking that may never change. ;) Here are all of the activities that are on the trays. Just a reminder if you haven’t read my winter tot trays post, these trays will be out for two weeks. If you have any questions about starting tot school I have a post on that too! This is only my second set of trays and I’m still trying things out, so don’t be surprised if I change things up a little in the future. :)

Cars in a parking lot with colored spots

Have the “parking lot” on the tray and the colored cars in a cup. Smiley picked the cars out one at a time and “drove” them into the correct parking spot. I made our parking lot especially for the new cars that Smiley Man got for Christmas.

Spoon Beads onto a car track

Have one track on the tray. Have a cup full of beads on the tray and a spoon next to the cup. Smiley Man spooned the beads onto the track. The goal was to keep most of the beads only on the track. You can see how well that worked. ;)

Tire Tracks in playdough

On the tray was a container of playdough and a few toy cars. Smiley Man put the playdough on the tray, then drove the car over the playdough to make tire tracks in the playdough.

Color Sort Pompoms

On the tray was a bowl filled with blue and white pompoms. There were also two empty toilet paper rolls each covered with a piece of blue construction paper and white construction paper. Smiley Man took the pompoms out of the bowl one at a time and put them into the correct toilet paper roll.

Car Circle Stickers

On the tray was a piece of lined paper. Smiley Man would take a sticker and put it in the lines. Mostly he just put the stickers on the paper. :)

Color Game 3

Each color game is only on the tray for one week (click the links to see the games). The rest of the activities are on the trays for two weeks. That means I go through two color games, but only one of all the other activities.

Color Game 4

Car Tot Book

I read this book at least once during the time that these trays are out. If Smiley man uses this tray while I am working with Little Bear, he can color the pictures or just look at the pictures as he turns the pages. I do not in any way expect Smiley Man to learn how to read by looking at this book. This book is simply for exposure to words and letters and concepts of print. Please feel free to download a copy of it!

Printables

Cars Sorting (Cars Preschool Pack page 8) Print the page twice and cut out each square and laminate. Have a cup for each picture. Smiley Man sorts the picture into the cup with the same picture on the front., Pre-Writing Practice (Cars Preschool Pack page 7)

Featured Toy

John Deere tractor and big truck

Themed Books

For this week I’ve set out the following books that are car related:

• Read and Roll – Ambulance
• Read and Roll – Police Car
• Usborne Big Machines Trucks
• Usborne Big Machines Tractors

Colored Car tracks

I put three of these colored car tracks on the tray (blue, white, gray).  To make these tracks colored, I just printed these shape car tracks on colored paper. Smiley used the car that was on the tray to “drive” on the tracks. If I noticed him playing with this tray, I would name the color of the track that he was currently using.

Car Coloring Page

This tray had a car coloring page and some crayons. I printed 4-5 coloring pages (here, here, here, here). When Smiley colored one of the pages, I put another coloring page on the tray. There was only ever one coloring page at a time on the tray.