Outdoor Activities for Your Transportation Theme

Looking for some outdoor activities to supplement your transportation theme? Find ways for your vehicle-loving toddler or preschooler to play outside with this collection of fun transportation activities to do outdoors.

Some kids love animals. Some kids love baby dolls. Some are obsessed with their building blocks.

But the kids that love vehicles? Well, their dedication to all things that go often takes it to the next level. 

If you have a transportation loving kiddo in your life, you’ll know the particular joy they feel when they’re playing with their toys with wheels. They love to spot vehicles in the real world, build with their train sets, and line up their hot wheels.

So what better way to engage your toddler or preschooler than setting up some transportation themed outdoor activities? With low prep and high engagement, your little one will take these ideas and run with them. 

Read on for our list of fun transportation theme activities for kids to do outside!

toy car wash for outdoor fun

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The Easiest Transportation Themed Outdoor Activities

Okay folks, just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it isn’t valid. By far, the easiest way to engage your transportation-obsessed toddler is to take some of their favorite toys and take them outside.

Does your child love Hot Wheels? Bet you they’d love racing them down the side walk. Or building their massive track set outside on the grass. Are they really into their miniature construction vehicles set? Take it out into a patch of dirt or gravel and let them take them to work. Have cars race down natural hills in your yard, drive precariously on planter ledges, do tricks and jumps off, well, basically anything.

Oftentimes, we make kids’ activities way too complicated. Your kids will likely play for much longer in the new environment, and their creativity will be boosted from the change in scenery. It’ll give a whole new life to the toys they already know and love.

Related Post: Whatever Happened to Playing Outside? The Importance of Outdoor Play for Kids

Transportation Themed Scavenger Hunt

Stretch your legs and get some energy out with a walk around the neighborhood. From cars to motorcycles to trash trucks, the streets where we live are a treasure trove of exciting vehicles for our little ones. Search for different types of vehicles, different colors of vehicles, and different sizes vehicles. This is a great opportunity to work on your child’s vocabulary in a fun and easy play based learning environment. 

For extra fun, don’t forget to grab your free Vehicle Scavenger Hunt printable!

Related Post: Rainbow Scavenger Hunt: A Painted Rock Activity for Toddlers

Bike and Car Wash

Kids learn best with hands-on activities, so why not put them to work?

You can take this activity small if you’d like, and have your child wash their hot wheels or other transportation toys. (We think they’d love to muddy them up with our Muddy Trucks Painting, too.)

BUT we also think they’d love to get some “real” work done. Set up a bucket of soapy water (baby shampoo works great for a non-abrasive bucket of suds), put out some microfiber wash cloths, and encourage your kids to wash their ride on toys.

They can wash their scooters, bikes, cozy coupes, or even their electric ride on toys (with batteries removed and LOTS of supervision). Or, if you’re feeling ambitious, make it a family affair and wash your real life car or truck.

Kids will love the real life responsibility, and it’ll be a messy-clean way to play with your things that go outside.

Little girl washing ride on toy car

Make Your Own Race Track

Grab a bucket of chalk and your favorite toy cars and trucks, and have kids set up their own system of roads and race tracks!

Whether it’s a simple oval track or a crazy loop-de-loop, kids will enjoy tracing the lines they’ve made with their vehicles (and we’ll keep how good it is for their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination to ourselves!). 

little boy playing with cars outside

Related Post: 10 Outdoor Toys for Kids To Encourage Independent Play

Read Outdoors

One of my kids’ favorite things to do is read the same book over and over and over again. And if your kid is obsessed with trucks, that book is probably about, you guessed it, a truck. 

One of my favorite ways to spend a beautiful sunny day is lounging outside with a good book. It’s never too soon to work on teaching the next generation this beloved past time. So next time it’s a beautiful day, grab a stack of books for the kids – and for you – and head outside! Set up a picnic blanket, pillows or chars and have your kids flip through their favorite books about things that go!

Looking to build your little transportation library? Check out this list of books about cars, trucks, and all things that MOVE!

Play Red Light, Green Light

It’s a classic outdoor activity that many modern kids haven’t played before!

Draw a starting line with chalk, or choose a land mark (like a light post or a car) to signal where the game will begin. Do the same with your finish line.

Have one person (mom, from the comfort of her Adirondack chair while drinking spiked lemonade, preferably) call out “Green Light!” Kids go as far as they can before mom yells “Red Light!” They must stop quickly, or get sent back to the starting line. 

The first to cross the finish line wins (or finishes the round, if they’re playing alone). Reset, and start again!

group of kids running while playing a game

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With these transportation themed outdoor activities, we think you’ll find that less is more than enough to keep your vehicle-loving kids occupied and engaged. It’s the perfect addition to your Things That Go transportation preschool theme, or just to keep your toddler busy so you can actually sit down for more than three minutes at a time.

Tried something you love? We’d love to hear about it in the comments!

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