Home » PreK & K » Activities»

Let's Keep Track

Road trips are filled with lots of interesting things to spot. Use this activity to help your child keep track!

Note: To access these materials in PDF format, you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

PDF (87k)

Materials:

• notepad
• pencil

Directions:

1. On your next trip, invite your child to choose something fun to look for and keep track of how many you see. (For example, stop signs, fire hydrants, baby strollers, or people on bikes. Or, on longer trips, your child might pick trucks, bridges, or farm animals.)
2. Help your child think of a simple way to make a mark on a piece of paper (such as an X, a circle, or a slash or line) every time the item is spotted. Each mark will be equal to one item seen.
3. Provide a notepad and pencil, and let the look-out begin! As your child searches, each time the item is spotted, remind your child to make a mark on the notepad.
4. How many of the items were spotted? At the end of the trip, help your child count up the marks.

Parent Pointers:

• This activity helps your child with counting, one-to-one correspondence, and representation.
• As you child becomes more experienced, increase the attributes of the item to two (such as red cars, or yellow street signs). This gives your child practice with coordinating attributes, another important sorting skill.
• You might also suggest your child look out for two objects, such as taxis and dogs. Help make two columns for recording. Later, you can compare the number of marks for each object.