- blocks
- marker
- mops
- paper
- paper towels
- plastic tarp (floor covering)
- play money and cash register (from Play and Pretend Center)
- pouring container(s)
- small brushes
- sponges
- spray bottles of water
- spray bottles of water mixed with baby shampoo
- tape
- wet
MA Standards:
Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.5: Create representations of experiences or stories (e.g., drawings, constructions with blocks or other materials, clay models) and explain them to others.
Head Start Outcomes:
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving: Classifies, compares, and contrasts objects, events, and experiences.
Logic and Reasoning/Symbolic Representation: Represents people, places, or things through drawings, movement, and three-dimensional objects.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 4: Engage in play experiences that involve naming and sorting common words into various classifications using general and specific language.
Science and Technology/Physical Sciences 20: Create representations of experiences or stories (e.g., drawings, constructions with blocks or other materials, clay models) and explain them to others.
At the Carwash
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
Skill Focus: Environmental Print, Hand-Eye Coordination, Imaginative Play, Listening and Speaking, Making Connections, Vocabulary
Talk with children about a carwash. Say, Cars and trucks get dirty. Many people take their dirty cars and trucks to a carwash to get clean. Have you ever been to a carwash? What was it like? What happened there?
Allow time for discussion. Then, invite children to use blocks to build a carwash around the plastic tub lid (where cars will be washed).
- Cover the floor of the block area with a plastic tarp.
- Help children make a sign for the carwash. Tape the sign near the entrance to the carwash.
- Let children “drive” toy cars, trucks, fire engines, and other Block Center vehicles into the carwash to be cleaned.
- Have one carwash worker spray a bit of bubbly suds on a vehicle to wash it, another worker spray or pour water to rinse the vehicle, and a third worker to wipe it dry.
- Make sure children work carefully so they don’t slip and fall.
- Have children work together to mop up the tarp area after playing.