Kindergarten Car Parade

     Each year at Lincoln we have a kindergarten car parade.  This is my second year participating as a kindergarten teacher and it is an awesome activity for our kids, and also the teachers :).  I had numerous parents tell me they still have cars from their children that are now in middle and high school.  In fact, Woodman's donated the banana boxes and when I went to pick up the boxes the young man who loaded them into my car asked what they were for.  I began to explain that I was a teacher and we make cars out of them.  He then asked if I taught at Lincoln and when I said yes he replied, "That was so much fun, I remember doing that when I was in kindergarten there!"
     Each child gets a banana box and throughout the week we decorate the boxes.  This year we discovered that moving the car parade to the beginning of the year was a good plan because we were able to paint the boxes outside and make less of a mess!  We paint the box one color and then paint 'shapes' on them next.  The kids cut out and glue on headlights, taillights, and license plates.  We then add steering wheels and are ready to practice driving.  Both teachers and children have a great time learning the rules of the road as we practice driving.  We make the cars as a part of our Emergency Responders and Safety Unit.  So we review road signs and then practice with our cars before we can get our driver's license for the parade.  If a child is being an unsafe driver and breaking the rules of the road they get pulled over and get a ticket.  Once we get our driver's license we get to be in the car parade for the whole school at the end of the day.  This year we were excited to see that some of our second grade friends had used their computer skills and made signs encouraging us during the parade!
     Check out our video!  Kindergarten Car Parade