The toddlers have shown a growing interest in vehicles and making tracks for their cars and bikes. At the beginning of the month we had a simple yet versatile set up on the smaller wooden table in our classroom. It consisted of one circular wooden train track and a set of clay vehicles. This seemed to be the starting point for their growing interest in tracks and vehicles for a lot of the children.
The toddlers excitedly began exploring this track. It wasn’t overly complicated in how it could be used but also lent movement for imagination. Ezra began pulling the track apart and rearranging the pieces, placing them back together in a different order to make a new type of track, Penny, Benji and Morley liked taking the different vehicles and driving them around and around the track. They would make different vehicle sounds and also train sounds as they did this. That afternoon the toddlers had made the same noises as they drove their bikes around and around the path way outside.
After observing this we started really focusing a lot more on making different obstacles for the toddlers to have outdoors to utilize their bikes through. We made up a large bike path for the children to follow outside using materials found around the playground. Penny, Leila and Jackson all helped Sarah place the borders of the track around the playground. Jackson clapped for himself after he would place a tube or wooden beam down.
After the tubes and boards were set in place we also used the wooden walking beams as blockers to make the road even longer! Austin and George worked together to hold the heavier beams and walked them together to where they wanted to place them. The toddlers then proceeded to take turns biking around the track that they created.
The toddlers used their gross motor skills to lift the heavy wooden blocks and tubes, placing them down onto the ground in a big circle that went around most of the playground.
The toddlers used their coordination skills to maneuver the bikes around the path avoiding obstacles. They also used their turn taking abilities and self-help skills to learn to maneuver their bikes through the track. Not only did it offer great gross motor opportunity but it also engaged the toddler’s core cognitive skills.
This whole activity was a great way of seeing the whole process from start to finish and in-between. It also shows that even at such a young stage in a child’s development they can be very creative.
