Grab your kid’s toy vehicles for an interactive matching game! Our DIY parking lot craft is a fun, hands-on way to learn Chinese vocabulary about vehicles! Through this fun parking lot activity, my daughter learned how to say and read the names for taxi, ambulance, garbage truck, fire engine, police car, and school bus! This activity was inspired by a name spelling activity from the website Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls!
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Important vocabulary:
- 停车场 / 停車場 (Tíngchēchǎng / parking lot)
- 校车 / 校車 (Xiàochē / school bus)
- 救护车 / 救護車 (Jiùhù chē / ambulance)
- 消防车 / 消防車 (Xiāofáng chē / fire truck)
- 垃圾车 / 垃圾車 (Lājī chē [China}/ Lèsè chē [Taiwan] / Garbage truck)
- 出租车 / 出租車 (Chūzū chē / taxi cab)
- 警车 / 警車 (Jǐngchē / police car)
- 自行车 / 自行車 (Zìxíngchē / bicycle)
- 三轮车 / 三輪車 (Sānlúnchē / tricycle)
- 推土机 / 推土機 (Tuītǔjī / bulldozer)
- 挖掘机 / 挖掘機 (Wājué jī / excavator)
- 吊车 (Diàochē / crane)
- 摩托车 / 摩托車 (Mótuō chē / motorcycle)
What you need to make a parking lot craft
- Large piece of cardboard
- Black and white paint; I used this acrylic paint
- Optional: Strips of cardboard or craft sticks; I used these mini craft sticks, but I think it would be better to use something larger so the writing is more visible.
- Toy vehicles; my kids love this wooden vehicle set!
- Post-It notes
- Glue
How to DIY the parking lot
- Paint the cardboard black
- Paint white lines to divide the parking spots
- Paint cardboard strips or craft sticks to give the curb dimension
- Let dry
- Glue curbs onto parking lot
- Write Chinese vehicle names onto curb
How to use the parking lot craft for Chinese teaching
- Introduce the parking lot in a playful way when your child is engaging in regular play
- Show that the parking lot curbs have the name of the vehicles for “assigned parking”.
- With Post-It notes, label each vehicle with its name.
- Have your child match the vehicle to parking spot using Post-It note for assistance.
- When your child is ready, remove the Post-It note and see if he/she remembers where to park each vehicle.
- When your child has mastered the Chinese vehicle names, you can have a race to see how quickly he/she can put the vehicles in their assigned spot. My daughter had a lot of fun with me timing her and seeing if she could beat her own time!
This activity would fit perfectly with our road tape activity as shown on Instagram! My kids had lots of fun with this road tape!
If you try this Parking Lot Craft and Toy Car Matching Activity, please let us know! My kids like to see what other kids are doing for Chinese learning! Leave a comment and don’t forget to tag @chalkacademy on Instagram and Facebook!
For more transportation activities, check out:
- Craft Stick Airplane Word-Matching Puzzle
- Make-A-Sentence Post-It Note Train Literacy Activity!
- Writing 车 (chē) and 車 (chē) with Road Tape
Follow me on Pinterest for more creative inspiration! Here is my Pinterest board with transportation activities from other wonderful websites!
Happy learning, friends!
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