Cars/Trucks: How They're Made & Work Resources

Resource Type Title/Author Comments Check Out Again? Rating
Book/Library Cars and How They Go; Cole, Joanna Wonderful book explains quite complex systems very nicely X 5
Book/Library How It Happens at the Truck Plant; Anderson, Jenna Good overview, nice photographs and explanations X 4
Video/Library How Are Cars Made? (Did You Ever Wonder Series) Look inside an auto plant; good explanations X 3
Video/Library Cars! Cars! Cars! Covers information from the first cars to assembly plants and briefly how engines work. Very nice from a homeschooling perspective since the mother presents the information to "school-aged" kids X 4
Toy Building toys: K'nex, Brio Builder, Tinker Toys, Lego, etc. Build different kids of cars and trucks. Find which designs roll best down a gradual slope, a steep slope and on a level surface.   5
Toy/Experiment Building toys: K'nex, Brio Builder, Tinker Toys, Lego, etc. Create an assembly line where one person assembles one part of a toy car and then passes it to the next person who adds another part. Experiment to learn what works best to equally share the work. Talk about working together.   5
Toy/Art Same building toys as above Draw a set of pictures on the steps to assemble the toy car made above.   4
Video Building toys described above, video camera Make a video of the car assembly process above. Allow the child(ren) to narrate the steps.   5
Field Trip Go to a place where cars can be safely observed. Look for things learned from the books and videos.   4

Ratings: 5= Excellent, 4= Good, 3=Average, 2=Fair, 1=Poor