Monster Truck Mayhem

Aron is really into monster trucks lately.  I think it's one of those ingrained-in-boys interests, because I cannot think of one single time he has ever actually seen a real monster truck.  It's the gigantic wheels, maybe? The crushing of the smaller and more inferior cars?  The crashes?  Who knows?  He even has his own name for them: Tram Trucks.  Don't ask me why this is what he calls them, because I have no earthly clue BUT I think it is cute as all get out, so I don't correct him.  They are only little once and soon he will outgrow all the cutesy names and mispronunciations.  Tram Trucks it is then.

Several months ago, I had bookmarked and downloaded this free  Monster Trucks Preschool Pack from Carisa over at 1+1+1=1.  I filed it away, to be used when I wanted to take a casual break from our regular curriculum.  Last week, I decided it was time for some rip-roaring, big wheeling fun!

Aron was extremely excited, asking me at least ten times throughout the first morning if it was "time for Tram Truck School yet?"  He was eager to begin, so after the breakfast dishes were cleared and we were all dressed for the day, we dove right in!

We started off with a video from YouTube that shows some real monster trucks in action.  I found one that was clear, showed multiple trucks, but was short as to keep his attention:

iZod Center 2012 Saturday Night Wheelie Competition Highlights 

He was mesmerized

After watching the video, we  dove into the preschool pack full steam ahead!

M is for Monster Trucks letter review

A monster truck number puzzle

Picture and word matching using the names of the trucks

Graphing--which truck can make to 5 first using the homemade themed die.

After doing some of the worksheets, we took a break and used some of Aron's other cars to practice counting and some basic addition and subtraction.  I lined up ten cars and he would count as he "jumped" his monster truck over them, one by one.  Then I would take away a few or add more, etc.

Lining up the cars

Destroyer making a large leap before "crushing" the cars below

After reviewing all the numbers from 1-20, we went back to the preschool pack. 

We made patterns

Practiced beginning letter sounds with a bingo marker

And learned a bible verse about being STRONG and COURAGEOUS

To close out our first day, we applied a temporary tattoo that came in the package with one of Aron's monster truck toys Jurassic Attack.

He's super tough now

We also played a game that I found online: Meteor Crash Race to School.  It's based from a monster truck themed cartoon and you get to choose one of three trucks to drive in a race to see who can get to school first.

Then we watched a clip from a Disney Cars DVD, Mater's Tall Tales where Mater imagines himself and his best pal, Lightning McQueen, to be competing in a monster truck wrestling match. If you have a Cars fan, they will really enjoy this.  You can find the clip on YouTube here.


Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we had to take a couple of days off from school work and all I heard every day was, "Mommy, do we have to keep waiting to do more Tram Truck School?"  We picked things back up at the beginning of this week and had a ton more fun.

Searching for words in a monster truck themed story

Aron's favorite part of the preschool pack was the scavenger hunt.  I cut out strips of paper with several pictures and names of monster trucks and then taped them in various places around the house.  He had a paper with corresponding pictures and names (that were dotted so he could trace them) and he ran around the house finding the strips one at a time, then running back, matching it to the correct picture on his paper and then using the dotted outline to practice his penmanship.

Found one!

Ssh! I'm hiding on a bookshelf!

Aron also really enjoyed the color matching memory game.

We had more counting practice by placing trucks in the "mud" and then matching the corresponding number to the number of monster truck pictures.

 

At the end of our day, and to send monster truck school out with a bang, we had some hands on fun.  We had fun painting tracks by rolling the wheels to Aron's monster truck toys in some acrylic paint and then driving the cars along on paper.  Thanks to Whimsical Ways for the idea.

The finished product

We colored a monster truck coloring page from Projects for Preschoolers.

Daddy played another game with Aron, Meteor Crash Ramp, which lets you drive up ramps and do flips in your monster truck.

For some fun sensory play, we made mud (aka chocolate scented playdough) for our trucks to ride through, courtesy of  I Can Teach My Child My Child.  This took a little bit of time, but it was completely worth it.  Gabby joined Aron and they played for nearly TWO HOURS in this stuff!

Measuring the ingredients

Then to end our monster truck adventure, we watched another clip of the car crushing giants:





Aron was sad to see the mini-unit end, but what he doesn't know is that soon, I'll be breaking out the Toy Story Preschool Pack. :)

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