Talking About Tractors: Build Preschool Vocabulary on the Farm

Transportation is a popular topic in my speech room. And what could be more fun than a tractor?

In today's post we’ll learn the parts of a tractor, practice “who” questions, make associations, and review basic concepts like prepositions.

Tractor: Parts of a Whole

Tractors are vehicles that help farmers do important work.

They help prepare the field for planting in the spring and harvest the crops in the fall.

Point to or talk about these parts:

  • engine

  • exhaust stack

  • cab

  • fender

  • step

  • front wheel

  • steering wheel

  • driving wheel

Can you think of other vehicles that have parts like these?

 
A red tractor labeled with arrows pointing to the parts; engine, exhaust stack, cab, fender, step, front, steering and driving wheels.
 

Here are more vehicles. Can you find the…

  • school bus

  • dump truck

  • boat

  • rocket

  • taco truck

  • tractor

Six simple illustrations of vehicles; a tractor, sailboat, school bus, dump truck, taco truck, and rocket.

Which vehicles have wheels?

Count them!

How many wheels are there all together?

Who Questions

Below are three of our community helpers: a pilot, a delivery worker, and a farmer.

  • Who drives a tractor?

  • Who flies an airplane?

  • Who drives a delivery truck?

A farm with three occupations in boxes below, a pilot, a delivery person, and a farmer.

Associations

Oh no! The delivery truck in this town broke down.

The driver asked the farmer if she could use his tractor to deliver some boxes.

Her stops for the day are:

  • The hospital

  • The grocery store

  • The plant store

  • The library

Which building would each of these boxes need to go?

  • Boxes of bandaids

  • Boxes of books

  • Boxes of pots

  • Boxes of pretzels

Four tractors with boxes filled with products going to four community buildings; a hospital, grocery store, plant shop, and library.

Basic Concepts

This tractor’s work is not done.

Now it’s going to help us learn some basic concepts.

Prepositions

Find the pumpkin:

  • in front of the tractor

  • behind the tractor

  • in the trailer

  • out of the trailer

Four boxes with a tractor and a pumpkin in each to show prepositions, in, out, behind and in front..jpg

Near and Far

There are a lot of trailers helping out today.

Some are near, or close to us.

Some are far, or a long way away.

Can you find our red trailer in each of the pictures?

Is it near, or is it far?

Six pictures of colorful tractors on the a farm. Each shows one that is near and one that is far.

Answers:

Who Questions: tractor/farmer, airplane/pilot, delivery truck/delivery worker

Associations: Boxes of bandaids/hospital, books/library, pot/plant shop, pretzels/grocery store

Prepositions: in front/picture 4, behind/picture 3, in/picture 1, out/picture 2

Near and Far: The red tractor is near, far, near, far, far, near

Word of the WeekLia Kurtin