Transportation Activities for Kids

Grade Levels: K-3

In this set of activities adaptable for grades K-3, parents and educators will find ideas for teaching about different types of transportation. These activities are designed to complement the BrainPOP Jr. Transportation topic page, which includes a movie, quizzes, online games, printable activities, and more.

Classroom Activities for Teaching About Transportation

How We Get to School
Create a bar graph or pictograph as a class. You may want to watch the Tally Charts and Bar Graphs movie or the Pictographs movie for review. You may also wish to use the Activity page to help you with this exercise. Create a survey together that asks how students get to school. Create a tally chart on the board and then have students record their tallies in the chart. Then have students or pairs turn the chart into a bar graph or pictograph or create one as a class. Ask questions about the data. How many students take cars to get to school? How many take the bus? How many more students take the bus than walk? Discuss with the answers together.

Bus Route

Together, map out the route a school bus takes in your community. If your school has a bus service, you can choose a route and mark the path on a regional map, denoting all the stops. If your school does not have a bus, then create a class bus route by finding out where students live and marking their locations on a map. This is a good opportunity to teach about the cardinal directions.

Family and Homeschool Activities for Teaching About Transportation

Travel Abroad

Find out the distances between your community and to places around the state, province, country, or world. How far is it between your community and Addis Abba, Ethiopia? Seoul, South Korea? You can use a map program on the Internet to get the information. Then on a world map, draw lines between the locations and mark the distance. Where in the world would your child like to go? How would he or she get there? Mark flight paths and ship paths to get from one destination to the other. Which would take longer? Why?

History of Aviation

Have your child look up images on the Internet or research at the library to see how flying machines or planes have changed throughout history. How are the machines alike or different? What designs were more successful than others? Why? Then research modern planes and space shuttles. What is the fastest plane in the world? How fast did the Wright brother’s plane go on its first flight? Your child can prepare a short report or create a timeline with pictures accompanied by facts.