• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • About
  • Shop
  • Press
  • Media Kit
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

teach mama logo

teach mama

helps families connect & build bridges between home & school, by amy mascott

  • early literacy
    • alphabet
    • beginning sounds
    • phonics
    • phonological awareness
    • read-aloud learning
    • rhyming
    • sight words
  • reading
    • books
    • comprehension
      • activating schema
      • connecting
      • inferring
      • predicting
      • questioning
      • retelling / summarizing
      • visualizing
    • concepts of print
    • environmental print
    • fluency
    • non-fiction
    • spelling
    • word building
    • word consciousness
    • vocabulary
  • writing
    • creative writing
    • grammar
    • informative writing
    • tripod grip
  • math
    • computation
    • counting
    • numbers
  • science
    • animals
    • plants
    • science experiments for kids
  • Activities
    • birthdays
    • cooking
      • new for us foods
    • crafts
    • foundations
      • colors
      • critical thinking
      • fine arts
      • listening
      • pretend play
      • sorting
      • speaking
    • holidays
      • new year’s
      • valentine’s day
      • president’s day
      • st. patrick’s day
      • april fool’s day
      • easter
      • mother’s day
      • teacher appreciation
      • father’s day
      • july 4th
      • halloween
      • thanksgiving
      • christmas
    • family life
      • family fun
      • giving back
      • lunchbox love notes
      • school
    • indoor activities
    • outdoor activities
  • digital literacy
    • computer time
    • iPad for learning
  • early literacy
    • alphabet
    • beginning sounds
    • phonics
    • phonological awareness
    • read-aloud learning
    • rhyming
    • sight words
  • reading
    • books
    • comprehension
      • activating schema
      • connecting
      • inferring
      • predicting
      • questioning
      • retelling / summarizing
      • visualizing
    • concepts of print
    • environmental print
    • fluency
    • non-fiction
    • spelling
    • word building
    • word consciousness
    • vocabulary
  • writing
    • creative writing
    • grammar
    • informative writing
    • tripod grip
  • math
    • computation
    • counting
    • numbers
  • science
    • animals
    • plants
    • science experiments for kids
  • Activities
    • birthdays
    • cooking
      • new for us foods
    • crafts
    • foundations
      • colors
      • critical thinking
      • fine arts
      • listening
      • pretend play
      • sorting
      • speaking
    • holidays
      • new year’s
      • valentine’s day
      • president’s day
      • st. patrick’s day
      • april fool’s day
      • easter
      • mother’s day
      • teacher appreciation
      • father’s day
      • july 4th
      • halloween
      • thanksgiving
      • christmas
    • family life
      • family fun
      • giving back
      • lunchbox love notes
      • school
    • indoor activities
    • outdoor activities
  • digital literacy
    • computer time
    • iPad for learning
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

shore fun

home / early literacy / alphabet / shore fun
87 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print

Today, we’re heading home from the Outer Banks–a vacation we’ve been looking forward to for weeks but one that comes with a 6+ hour car ride journey.

After my last trip back from PA–my 5 hour solo adventure–the last thing I am going to do is plop my 5, 3, and 2 year old in the car without ample planning.

Here’s what I’ve got in my back pocket for my three young travelers, should they suddenly get ants in their little stuck-in-carseats-pants.

  • Travel Bingo OBX: This is a totally awesome adaptation of my first game, this time made by my pal, Laura, who is a seasoned Outer Banks traveler. She knew cool sites to add to the game, and she kindly sent it to me to use.

I called it Travel Bingo OBX, and Maddy, Owen, and Cora loved playing it on the way down because it includes Grave Digger (the monster truck), the World’s Largest Hammock (no joke!), a tunnel, and everything beachy–sailboats, bikes, etc. It proved to be an awesome game and kept little eyes and hands busy.

Travel Bingo OBX is here to download as a pdf if you’d like.

  • ABC Road Hunt: We played this a loooong time ago, but I printed out new boards and clipped them to new chart stickers. These are simply small squares under each letter of the alphabet. When a player spies a letter, he puts a sticker in the box–that’s it!

Although my kiddos were not interested in playing this on the way, we’ve got them ready, complete with tiny stickers should they choose to play today. I printed out one uppercase board and one lowercase board for each Maddy, Owen, and Cora.

  • Number Hunt Boards: I also printed a few of these out in case we were feeling a little number-hungry along the way. With the many road signs, license plates, and highway signs we’ll see, I thought this would be worthwhile.

These are the same deal as the ABC Hunt Game, but with numbers 1-20. And the great thing is that if we don’t use these boards while traveling, we can always use them in the house, grocery store, or wherever.

  • Color Cards: Along with my bag of Color Cards and Clips, I have a small bag of about 20 paint-store color samples that I cut into squares. Each strip had about 4 or 5 shades, so the bag has bits of every color. This little guy has proved to buy us some time a few weeks ago while we waited at the vet before Golden and Guinea’s check-up and at a few restaurants before our meals arrived.

Maddy and Owen like to make color lines or patterns with the colors, and I usually help Cora sort the colors into piles. It’s not as easy to sort these as you might think; some of the colors–the yell0w-green or purplish-pink–even stump Maddy and Owen!

Our color cards
  • Books: I re-vamped, re-arranged, and re-organized the book supply that we keep in our car; at our hospital’s book tent a few weeks ago, I stuffed my $8 bag with every great children’s book I could find. With a fresh supply of books to walk through on this long trip, I had a feeling that Maddy, Owen, and Cora would find something they liked.

I also put a huge stack of early-emergent reader texts in Maddy’s small backpack. Kindergarten is fast approaching, and I know she likes to try to read the words she can on the pages.

  • Backpacks: In everyone’s tiny travel backpack, I put their small Magna-Doodle and their bag of art supplies–a few sheets of stickers, their travel crayons, some paper, and a small tablet. I threw a bunch of cars in Owen’s pack, some Polly Pockets in Maddy’s, and some Little People in Cora’s.

Miraculously, our drive to the Outer Banks from Maryland was (surprisingly!) enjoyable. It could have been a combination of leaving before the crack of dawn, stopping for breakfast, or the anticipation of the beach at the end of the road.

We’ll cross our fingers today for a safe and peaceful trip on the way home, and hopefully these three tiny travelers will have a few games, some easy activities, and their memories of jumping waves and collecting seashells to keep these kiddos occupied.

Thanks for subscribing to teachmama! Have a good one!

You May Also Like...

  • everything free and awesome online to do while kids are home: classes, crafts, virtual tours and more
    everything free and awesome online to do while kids are home: classes, crafts,…
  • Navigating Education in a Time of Uncertainty: A Virtual Summit for Educators
    Navigating Education in a Time of Uncertainty: A Virtual Summit for Educators
  • Virtual Summit for Educators: Navigating the Online Classroom & Beyond
    Virtual Summit for Educators: Navigating the Online Classroom & Beyond

About amy mascott

teacher, mother, dreamer. lover of literacy, fun learning, good food, and three crazy-cool kids. finder of four-leaf clovers | dc metro ยท http://about.me/amymascott
tweet with me: @teachmama

Previous Post: « we’ve got an alphabet here. . .
Next Post: the special plate: celebrate success as a family the special plate | celebrate success as a family | teachmama.com »

Sidebar

our books & freebies

setting the stage for rock-star readers
raise a reader
amy mascott profile blog
subscribe teachmama

join the coolest club around:

Find Us On Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Helpful Links

  • About
  • Contact
  • Press
  • Media Kit
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy

Follow Us On Instagram

View
Open
Aaawwwhhhhh live this little Welcome Pack from @univofmaryland @umddining โ€” countdown is on! 

T-minus 8 days until our #1 hits campus!

#bts2022 #OldBay #marylandlife #universityofmaryland
View
Open
Super easy, homemade dog treats! 

Kids can helpโ€”they love the scraping into molds part!

Recipe below: 

ingredients 
1 egg
1 12.5 oz can chicken
1/4 cup chickpea (or tapioca) flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour

instructions 
1. preheat oven to 350โ€ข

2. add all ingredients to blender and mix on high

3. pour into silicon molds

4. bake 10 min then switch trays to opposite oven racksโ€”our racks cannot fit two trays). bake for another 10-12 min or until treats pop easily out of molds. 

5. let cool on tray so they get a little more crispy. 

store in airtight container for up to a week!

#kidsinthekitchen #homemadedogtreats #pettreats #diydogtreats #dogtraining #familyfun
View
Open
Pop Up Shops for Musikfest!

New tees and tanksโ€”super cool and perfect for โ€˜festing!

@bethlum.shop is where itโ€™s at!
View
Open
happy saturday ๐Ÿš™
View
Open
Painted rocks are a lifesaver most days, arenโ€™t they?
View
Open
Hello, Teacher Wish List.

You are welcome here. In fact, we are incredibly glad that youโ€™ve made your way into our culture.

Youโ€™re like the Wedding Registry or Baby Registryโ€“but better. 

You are a dream because you are the list that gives and gives and gives. Youโ€™re not full of weird kitchen appliances or ugly China patterns or tiny baby Air Jordans. You are made of books, pens, pencils, journals, math manipulatives, bulletin board letters, lab goggles, staplers, and hole punchers.

You are helping to equip and educate the youth of the world and are taking a tiny bit of stress off of the shoulders of our educators. And we all know that our educatorsโ€“especially in the last few yearsโ€“have been stretched to the absolute max. They are tired, worn down, and stepped on. Theyโ€™re pushed and pulled every which way and are expected to do the job of 27 different people.

What an amazing thing you are, you little Classroom Wish List! Just a simple Amazon Wish List, you let us all feel like we are helping in a teeny way, and we thank you.

We hope you never, ever leave and that youโ€™re here to stay.

Sincerely,

Everyone

Want to help #ClearTheList ? 

Please visit: bit.ly/HELPclearthelist

#BTS2022 #HelpClearTheList #ISupportTeachers #TeachersRock #linkinbio
View
Open
TEACHERS! 

We appreciate you. 

We know that you have been spending your own money for AGES for your classroom and students, and we want to help. 

Hereโ€™s everything you need to know about creating your own Amazon Wish List: https://teachmama.com/help-teachers-clear-the-list/

Am I missing anything? Please let me know! 

#ClearTheList #CreateTeacherWishList #ClassroomWishList #AmazonWishList #BTS2022
View
Open
Friends, if you have an extra $5 or $10 that you could spare to help some amazing educators, we would be SO GRATEFUL.

Head on over to find out what I'm talking about and to learn how you can help.

And? If you're a teacher, add YOUR list to the mix so it gets more eyes (and more support!)

Check it out: https://teachmama.com/help-teachers-clear-the-list/

#ClearTheList #linkinbio #BTS2022 #ShareYourList #AmazonClearTheList
View
Open
nosotros votamos!

Find YOUR Gun Sense Candidates here: https://gunsensevoter.org/candidates/

#FirstTimeVoter #GunSenseVoter #AppleBallotVoter #yovotรฉ

Copyright © 2022 · teach mama media, llc · All Rights Reserved

87 shares