Transportation Themed STEM Activities for Fire Safety Week

A woman stands behind a table displaying materials related to a children's prayer book titled 'Ladder and Friends Learn to Pray'. The table features colorful book covers and promotional items. Another vendor with a table is visible in the background.

My son loves trucks, and a few years ago we stumbled about the best touch-a-truck ever. It’s actually a truck-or-treat, and it’s hosted by the Franklin County Engineering Department at Fort Obetz. They have soooo many trucks—they have some of the biggest and coolest trucks around. They even have a police helicopter, dump truck rides, and kids’ electric car rides. In addition to being able to touch and climb onto the trucks the kids dress up in costumes and trick-or-treat at each truck. It’s so cute!

With the debut of Ladder and Friends Learn to Pray this past month, I reached out and asked if I could have a table at the event. Although, I couldn’t sell the book at the event, I was able to have a table featuring some STEM activities that are perfect for preschool and early elementary school and hand out flyers.

For more information about Ladder and Friends Learn to Pray—a bedtime book for kids, you can read more here!

Learn MOre about Ladder and Friends!

STEM Activities

Rescue the Kitty Cat

A crafted tree with green leaves and an orange cat sitting on a branch, displayed on a white board. Below, various craft supplies including colorful pipe cleaners, a roll of tape, and wooden sticks are arranged on a wooden floor.

A colorful cardboard illustration of a tree with green leaves and a cat sitting on a branch, with a hand holding a makeshift ladder made of popsicle sticks and red yarn.

I like to have STEM activities where kids actually go through the design process. Inspired by a spread in my book Ladder and Friends Learn to Pray where a fireman rescues a kitty cat from a tree, I decided to create a similar STEM challenge. So I took a tri-fold posterboard and created a cat in a tree. Then I gave kids popsicles sticks, pipe cleaners and sticky dots and challenged the kids to design a ladder tall enough to save the kitty cat. This proved to be a very popular activity. I was amazed at the variety of ladders that the kids came up with!

An educational challenge poster titled 'Challenge: Make a Ladder to Rescue the Kitty!' featuring a friendly cartoon fire truck surrounded by numbered steps: 1. Notice, 2. Wonder, 3. Plan, 4. Create, 5. Experiment, 6. Improve, 7. Share. It encourages using popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners to build a ladder.

Subscribe to get access to all my subscriber only printout including the cat cut-outs for your tree and the Notice and Wonder STEM design process handout.

Emergency Vehicle Puzzles-Inspired by Tangrams

Colorful truck shape puzzles inspired by tangrams, featuring various geometric shapes in multiple designs. The top row includes a silhouette and a colorful version of a fire truck. The bottom row displays two different trucks alongside an airplane design.

A colorful paper collage displaying geometric shapes, including triangles, circles, and rectangles, arranged to form an abstract design. There is a paper airplane illustration in the top left corner.

A colorful truck illustration featuring geometric shapes in green, black, red, and blue, placed on a white background.

As I was brainstorming STEM ideas that aligned with Ladder and Friends Learn to Pray that would be quick and easy to do at an event, I came up with the idea of Emergency Vehicle Puzzles. Although, these are not technically tangrams, I was inspired by tangrams. These puzzles provide the same skills as tangrams: Color recognition, shape recognition, spatial reasoning, and problem solving. I created four different tangram characters based on my book Ladder and Friends Learn to Pray: fire truck, ambulance, semi truck, and jet airplane.

Since kids of all ages would be stopping by my booth, I came up with three skill levels for each puzzle. The easiest skill level has kids match the shapes by color; the second level has them just match the shape outline; and in the most difficult puzzle the kids have to figure out which shapes go where using problem-solving skills. This was a very popular activity with the kids, and I can see using it as a preschool, kindergarten, or early elementary activity in a homeschool setting or as screen-free play; a bell ringer; classroom center activity; morning work; or for early finishers.

You can purchase these tangrams from my store using the button below. I put the puzzles in sheet protectors and I laminated the pieces and that proved durable.

Get VEhicle Puzzles Here!

Design Paper Airplanes

Graphic illustrating a challenge to design two paper airplanes, featuring a cartoon plane and a circular flowchart with steps: Notice, Wonder, Plan, Create, Experiment, Improve, and Share. The image encourages evaluation by asking, 'What did you do differently?'

I laid out a bunch of origami paper and challenged the kids to make two paper airplanes designed differently and see which one would fly the farthest. This activity proved popular with the older kids. It was also a good grab-and-go activity for parents who didn’t want to hang out at my table.

Subscribe to get access to all my subscriber only printout including the Notice and Wonder STEM design process handout.

Coloring Book Pages

Illustration featuring a variety of playful vehicles, including a fire truck, ambulance, delivery truck, and airplane, with a title that reads 'MAKE A PUPPET.' The images are in a coloring book style.

For the littlest one at the event and for another grab-and-go activity, I had coloring book pages available based on Ladder and Friends Learn to Pray. One of the coloring book pages even had cutouts to make puppets. Making puppets out of the characters was my young son’s idea. You color and cutout the characters and attach them to a popsicle sticks. If you have the book, you could even use the puppets when saying the prayers at night.

Subscribe to get access to all my subscriber-only printouts including the puppet printable.

You can also purchase a ‘Ladder and Friends Learn to Pray coloring book (digital download) on my website! I’m hoping to have bound copies soon. They should be available mid-November 2026.

Buy Coloring Book Here! (Digital Download)

Cover of a children's coloring book titled 'Ladder and Friends Learn to Pray,' featuring a smiling fire truck, a firefighter, and a lion, designed for kids ages 1-6.

Conclusion

A smiling woman standing at a table with books and promotional materials, wearing a Batman-themed shirt, in an outdoor setting with dark-colored walls in the background.

I had a blast at Trunk-or-Treat! (And so did my son who walked around with my husband). My booth proved to be very popular, and I barely had a chance to sit down. These activities can be used as part of your math or science class, for fire safety month or for your transportation theme unit. These fire truck STEM activities can also be used as screen-free fun at home or in a homeschool setting!

More STEM Activities

A creative setup displaying materials for a 'Beauty and the Beast' themed STEM activity.

Check out some of my other popular STEM activities. I plan to add a Cinderella STEM Day, Three Bears STEM Day, and Frog and Toad STEM Day to this list soon, so be sure to subscribe!

Share and Follow!

a close up shot of a person holding a smartphone — Photo by Brian Ramirez on Pexels.com

Share this post with your other mom friends or teacher friends! Be sure to follow me on social media! I’ve really been putting together a nice collection on Pinterest, so teachers/parents can save (pin) the activities for a time when it matches their curriculum.

Ladder and Friends Learn to Pray: NoW Available!

Do you have a truck-loving kid? Are you looking for bedtime books that encourage positive character traits and feature community helpers? If so, I have the perfect book for you: Ladder and Friends Learn to Pray!

Many of the Christian resources I found for young children had cute little kids and cuddly animals. This was not appealing at all to my son; he wanted trucks and wheel and trains! So, I scoured Amazon looking for Christian books aimed at young boys, but I couldn’t find anything. Therefore, I decided to write my own. You can now purchase it through my website or order it on Amazon! Watch the trailer above to see the adorable characters!

Buy on my Website (Preferred)!

Buy on Amazon!

Transportation STEM Activities