Travel Play
Boys and girls love transport of every kind! How often do you see a child stopped in their tracks, staring up at the sky, watching a plane overhead or mimic the sounds of a large truck as it rumbles past? Most children are used to their family cars and find many other forms of transport fascinating. This is a great opportunity for you to teach your kids about the signs and symbols they see around them when they are riding the bus or waiting for a train. Answer there many questions; show them how to purchase a ticket and point out signs that tell them how to stay safe when riding the train. Line up chairs at home in two rows to create a bus and practice being the driver and the customer. Keep your old tickets and give these to your kids to read and play with, make pretend money and signs to encourage safety precautions like stand behind the yellow line. Embrace your children’s fascination with transport and add as many words as you can to make it a literacy enriched dramatic play experience!
 Credit: JT Miller Literacy On The Move! Stuck in a car on a long, never-ending journey, the only dramatic play that is likely to take place is a few sibling spats. So, why not avoid that beatings and the boredom and engage in a game of I-Spy! Not only will it keep the kids attention, but it will help develop their association of objects to letters. |
|
All Kinds Of Transportation Children interact closely with public transport. Get them to pay attention to these signs will help stimulate their funds of knowledge during thematic play. |
 Credit: Seton At The Petrol Station When at the petrol station, there is literacy all around it. There’s heaps of signs, logos, symbols and text. For example toilet sign, no smoking, no one under 16 is to use the pumps, the petrol pumps are numbered as well. Even when you go into pay, there’s supplies in the shop along with pricing and more signage. It even shows discounts of shopping items as well. |
 Credit: Sydney Trains Symbolic Literacy Symbols are just as important as the written word, and they are used frequently on signage, especially at transportation hubs. Check out the nearest timetable or booklet from the bus/train/ferry terminals and you’ll see a wide range of symbols. Get the kids to make their own symbols that are relevant to their play and environment! |
 Credit: Train Tickets Even a train ticket has a lot of literacy to play with. You can get your children to read out the departure and destination, date, price, GST. After many time of train experience, you can ask children to design their own train ticket. |
 Credit: Wikipedia Ticket Machines The ticket machine is very straightforward literacy learning interface because all the suburbs are listed by alphabetic order. Children can practice their alphabetic coding by searching their home suburb or suburbs of their friends or extended family members’ places. Similarly, parents could encourage them to begin a suburb collection for themselves to record every suburb they have been to by alphabetic order, which could either be a learning record or prop for dramatic play. |
 Credit: Aylas Travels Railway Network Once the children know more suburbs and name of train stations, they can begin to learn the train lines starting with their familiar stations. Put a handy train map on the wall so that your children can circle it and find out which line it is on. Later teach your children “how to get there” by identifying two stations on the map. Then work out together which lines they are on. Ask questions like “are they on the same line?” “do we need to change?” and “where are we going to change?” |
 Credit: Sydney Morning Herald Airport Airport is a place full of symbols and literacy. If you get a chance to take your children on board, don’t miss it!. |
 Credit: Daily Telegraph Departure Board Similar to a train notification board, the departure information board at airport display info including flight number, destination, departure time, boarding time, and most importantly, the gate you are looking for check-in. Tell your children what flight you are taking and let them to tell you where you should go for check-in. |
 Credit: eBay Writing Baggage Claim Card During check-in, an important literacy learning opportunity is writing baggage claim card where children will have the chance to write their names. This will be a good resource for dramatic play featured by airport scene. |
 Credit: Sydney Airport Message Board Boarding Pass Like the train ticket, children will get a boarding pass instead for a flight. There is important information like boarding time, which gate you should go to and where you are going to sit. Get the children to pay attention to the barcode and leave that question mark. When boarding children know what is that for and how the staff will do with it. |
Credit: Alina
|
On The Move
During travelling by any transportation or walking on feet street direction and name plates are also good resource for children to get involve in literacy practice, including identifying alphabates, reading, and following the directions. |