Transportation By Air

Welcome to Blue Bird Day’s Weekly Lesson Plans. This week we’re working on the theme Transportation By Air! Read below for more themed lesson plans and activities.

Table Time Activity: Airplane Color by Number

Materials:

Color By Number Activity Sheet.

Skill Check

This activity focuses on number and color recognition and fine motor skills.

Growing My Skills

Follow the link to the image and print.

Gather writing utensils.

Review numbers and colors listed on the sheet.

Color each section the corresponding color. Modification: If needed outline each area in the correct color or color a circle around each number.

Floortime Play Activity: Transportation Play

Materials:

Toy Transportation Items.

Skill Check

The goal of this activity is to spend time together in a playful, imaginative way. There should be limited structure and a lot of pretending.

Growing My Skills

Sit down with your child and explore each item.

Begin moving the transportation toy around the floor.

Encourage your child to do the same.

Explore where that plane is going, what are they doing, etc.

Relaxation Time Activity: Making Discovery Bottles!

Materials:

Easy Science Discovery Bottle Options.

Skill Check

The goal of this activity is to help your child engage and participate in learning coping strategies/exercises. Using the discovery bottle as a coping skill to calm your body down/redirect attention/engage in surroundings. You can add to the transportation theme by adding things like small plane figurines, stickers, etc.

Growing My Skills

Gather materials.

Please help guide child through this craft (hand-over-hand or prepping certain materials may be necessary) as it is more challenging (please see Pinterest link for step-by-step instructions).

Ask your child questions that will help them connect with the craft they are making; while making the discovery bottles ask your child questions like, “what do you want to add?” “what do you like?” This is a great way to learn more about your child’s likes and dislikes.

When the discovery bottle is complete, ask them to point out objects! Ask questions like “what do see?”

Remember this can be used as a calming tool, so the more “liked” objects they add, the more things they will/can look for when using this tool!

Creative Time Activity: Continent Match

Materials:

Printable match page.

Scissors.

Skill Check

The goal of this activity is for your child to build their color and shape identification skills while learning about where they can travel to around the world.

Growing My Skills

Print out Continent Match pages.

Have your child cut out each continent.

Match!

You can also check out different videos online with information on what makes each continent unique.

Movement Time Activity: Airplane Play

Materials:

Yourself!

Skill Check

The goal of this week is to work on the prone extension (Superman) position by flying in the sky just like an airplane!

Growing My Skills

Lay with your back on the floor as your child lays across your shins, then pick up your legs so they are holding the airplane/Superman position in the air.

Have them try to lift both of their arms up by asking them to give you high fives, or actually “high tens”, holding both of your hands out in front of them.

If this is too much on your body, they can practice airplane/Superman over your lap or even just on the floor, again trying to lift their arms and legs up.

Mealtime Activity: Explore with Food!

Materials:

Apples.

Bananas.

Apples and bananas video.

Skill Check

The goal of this activity is to increase your child’s tolerance, exploration, and consumption of different textured fruits.

Growing My Skills

Listen to “Apples and Bananas” song together.

Present each food, whole and in peel, to the child.

Allow your child to explore the food by looking, touching, or smelling while you describe the color, shape, texture of each food.

Prompt your child, or provide full model support, to open the banana and describe the fruit (smell, shape, color, taste).

You may cut the apple into slices and also utilize the same language building ideas of describing the fruit.

As your child demonstrates comfort, you can begin modeling licking/kissing/biting the food, while singing the song.

If your child demonstrates discomfort, that is OK! Exploring by touch or smell is a great way to build upon exploration of new/non-preferred foods.

Language Time Activity: Up, Up, Up by Susan Reid

Materials:

Balloon.

Book: “Up Up Up” by Susan Reid.

Skill Check

The goal of this week is to increase your child’s expressive, pragmatic, receptive language skills by following directions, taking turns, and commenting on what they see in the sky.

Growing My Skills

Blow up a balloon and target turn-taking by trying to keep it afloat, following directions by hitting the balloon to different people/different places.

Increase your child’s expressive language skills by having them play the leader, and direct players where to hit the balloon to/where to put it; later, go for a walk outside and look up in the sky, describing the different things you may see (e.g., airplane, helicopter, skyscraper).

Utilize qualitative concepts and descriptive words (e.g., color, size, speed, height) to talk about the different items seen. Play eye spy and make it a receptive language tasked guessing game!

Have fun with balloon play & following directions – Keep the balloon up “off the ground”, hit it “up to your friend”, put it “under” the table.