State and Model the Objective
The children will drive cars to places, park their cars, and then read and write words with -ar, such as car, start, farm, barn, and card. 

Literacy Activities
Mark the cars with -ar words 

• Have children write -ar words on their picture of a car (found below).
• Let the children make marks or put stars on the -ar cars.  

Decide where to go

• Have each child pick a location card (found below).  
• Have the children read the location out loud. 
• Have the children write a sentence using their location (e.g., “The car will go to the market,” “We will go to the yard sale.”).

Set up marts and markets on streets

• Display the Start a Town target text (found below) and read it with the children. 
• Let the children make a map on paper or on the ground with chalk or masking tape (example found below).
• Provide a word wall that the children can use for names of streets and stores that contains the words market, smart, star, park, card, dart, cart, part, party, snack, carpet, street, mart, shop, and bar.
• Let the children mark and name places on the map (e.g., Art Market, Carpet Market, Car Parts Mart, Party Mart, Yarn Mart, Smart Street, Star Street, Park Street, Card Shop, Dart Shop, snack bar, yard sale, farm).
• Have the children write Parking near each mart or market (optional).

Start to get to the end mark

• Give the children a toy car or a picture of a car (found below) and a picture of a town (found below).
• Read the Let’s Start and Get to the End Mark target text (found below) to the children.
• Have the children follow along the picture of the town with a finger as you read the text so that they can get from the start to the end mark.
• Let children read where the car will go: to the market, yard sale, farm, garden, party mart, and park. 

More Practice
Read target words in texts

• Read the Start Your Car! target text (found below) to the children.
• Engage the children in reading the text together.
• Identify words in the text with -ar.
• Read the text together again, fading support.

Is it far?

• Ask the children questions about how far away certain places are using the picture of the town (e.g., “Far,” “Not far,” “Very far,” or “A little far.”).
• Have the children write their answers similarly to the examples below:
  • “Is the park far from the start?”→  “Yes, the park is very far from the start.”
  • "Is the yard sale far from the snack bar?"→ “No, the yard sale is not far from the snack bar.”
  • "Is the farm far from Party Mart?"→ “The farm is a little far from Party Mart.”