Disney Cars Movie Activities for Toddlers

So it all started with our visit to Disneyland earlier this year and we bought a harmless Cars movie t-shirt for little buddy. When we were back home, we told him that the red car is called Lightning McQueen and the brown tow truck is called Tow Mater. That's all the parents knew about the Cars movie characters. Xue pointed at the rest of the characters on the t-shirt, wanting to know their names as well. Our little buddy can't take 'I don't know' as an answer and he will ask you every hour until you have an answer to his question. We searched online to find out about the different characters in the Cars movie and one thing led to another and soon, Xue knew the names of every car in the movies, yes I mean both Cars 1 and Cars 2. If you name a race car wrongly, he will point it out to you immediately. And if you are wondering, he hasn't watched both movies before so it's bewildering how he can go all crazy over these cars. Just look at his wall, you know he has a serious Cars obsession.

Anyway, I might as well tap on this interest or rather obsession for our homeschooling activities. I downloaded the Cars Preschool Pack from amazing 1+1+1=1 blog. They have so many toddlers and preschools activities printable packages for different themes and you can definitely find something your tot likes there. Based on Xue's abilities and learning preferences, I did a fair bit of adaptations to the package and added new activities too. And presenting my Cars Movie Activities basket for the month of March/ April! Xue was so happy digging through the activity basket that morning, checking out the activities and of course his favourite Cars movie characters.

1) Counting and Line Drawing

I laminated the pages so that Xue can work on them again. In fact, Xue knows to get a wet tissue and wipe off his drawings on his own!

2) Colours Matching

I laminated all the cutouts and attached velcro dots at the back. Xue enjoys peeling off the cutouts and attaching them back. When not in use, the velcro can hold each piece in place and the board serves as a great poster too!

3) Shapes Matching

Using the same cutouts as the Colours Matching activities, Xue matches the shape of the cutouts to the outlines.

4) Accordion Numbers 1 to 10 Mini Booklet

5) Peekaboo Flip Card Board

Not a huge hit, I think this activity will be more fun for older kids. Xue don't understand the game idea of finding matches but there's still the thrill of flipping up all the cards and checking out what's under! Also included a colouring page on the board cover.

6) Photo Puzzle

I did this specially for my son because he LOVES puzzles. Also attached velcro dots at the back of each puzzle pieces and the laminated main puzzle board.

At our home, we have activity baskets where I keep all of these stuffs and Xue freely chooses what he likes to do. For new activities, I show him what we can do with them for the first time and subsequently, he's free to use the resources on his own. When he no longer rummages through the basket, it's a sign he's done with the learning and I will either engage him with the resources again, show him alternative ways of using the resources (if any) or change out the activities. These activity baskets are working really well for us. They are usually the first things he checks out whenever he wakes up in the morning and he's such a happy boy to find new stuffs in them. Also, with these baskets, he knows where to keep all his stuffs when he's done too. Just $2 each from Daiso!

I think he's pretty over the whole Cars thing and a new theme is coming up in May! Hooray~~