Little Blue Truck

What's with trucks driving in mud? For my girly-girl, our Blue Truck theme was totally shocking and fascinating at the same time. We mixed colors and painted a lot, counted and constructed trucks with shapes, built small worlds and role-played "Friends". The new words for us were swerve, curve, mud, stuck, and tires.

Little Blue Truck

Our activities are based on the book "Little Blue Truck" by Alice Schertle and are a part of this month's Poppins Book Nook. Please, take some time to look through wonderful ideas for the April's "Plains, Trains, and Automobiles" - they all are so much fun!

Unlike my usual difficulty to single out the best book from many available, "Little Blue Truck" jumped out to us from a pile of other great transportation books. The story line is simple. The huge mean truck got stuck in mud, asked for help, but nobody wanted to help him because he had been rude to them. Little Blue was kind and brave. He rushed to help the one in need without hesitation.

Little Blue dress-up costume

We made these blue trucks for our Tot School. They are nothing fancy: we wanted several of them and quick. The picture of Camilla in a truck is not the best. It was close to impossible to snap a picture of kids dressed in trucks. As soon as they got their trucks on, they started laughing and running around and away... huge success!

To make a truck, I opened up the box at the top and bottom, removed some flaps, and stapled together the parts at the top at an angle. We painted the boxes with Camilla - she was happy to paint for this huge project. Of course, she turned blue from her head to toes at the end. My friends did an excellent job of decorating the trucks. Becca's husband invented the wipes on windshields, the best detail that drew everybody's attention (they are made with chenille stems and are movable). We also added the ribbons to help hold trucks on kids when they run.

Here is a picture of the wheels. The chenille stem is threaded through the cap from a baby food pouch, then through a single hole in the paper plate and the truck, and through the second cap on the other side. This was easy and fast to do.

Mud: color mixing and painting

We learned that all the colors mixed together make brown "mud". This is our first color mixing experience.

We "swerved and curved" while painting waves. I printed out waves in shades of grey and showed Camilla how to color in the waves. This is an excellent idea! The patterns for prewriting skills are filled with art and creativity. This activity was inspired by this great blog post: Zig Zag Painting.

 

Camilla spent a lot of time painting with the truck. I made a long strip from our "mud" pictures. We put paint directly onto the paper; and Camilla drove her blue truck through the paint. After the paint dried out, the painting became Camilla's favorite toy for a couple of days.

Little Blue Truck - Helping Hand Theater

The set up: painted "mud" on the floor, big toy truck "stuck" in mud, and kids dressed in blue trucks. There is no picture. Though the video would be better. Our 2 year olds problem solving skills in action - priceless!

Nolan came to push the truck out of the mud first. The truck didn't move (I was holding the truck in place). The idea was to wait for all the kids to figure out to work together to help the truck. Ainsley was next trying to decide whether to push the truck or Nolan. Then unexpected happened. Cassy ran around me and pulled the paper away from the truck to set it free. Everybody froze - there was a minute of silence followed by a burst of laughter.

Like I said - priceless!!!

Planes, trains, and automobiles

I am proud to join a group of these wonderful bloggers - hosts of Poppins Book  Nook!

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ 3 Dinosaurs ~ To the Moon and Back ~ Planet Smarty Pants ~ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ Growing in God's Grace ~ Chestnut Grove Academy ~ Learning and Growing the Piwi Way ~ The Usual Mayhem~ Preschool Powol Packets ~ Monsters Ed Homeschool Academy ~ Adventures in Mommydom ~ Teach Beside Me ~ Life with Moore Babies ~ Kathy's Cluttered Mind ~ Are We There Yet? ~ Our Crafts N Things ~ Hopkins Homeschool ~ ABC Creative Learning ~ Joy Focused Learning ~ P is for Preschooler ~ Laugh and Learn ~ A Mommy's Adventures ~ Inspiring 2 New Hampshire Children ~ World for Learning ~ Ever After in the Woods ~ Golden Grasses ~ Our Simple Kinda Life ~ A glimpse of our life ~ Journey to Excellence ~ Happy Little Homemaker ~ Little Homeschool Blessings ~ Simplicity Breeds Happiness ~ Raventhreads ~ Learning Fundamentals ~ Tots and Me ~ As We Walk Along The Road ~ Stir the Wonder ~ For This Season ~ Where Imagination Grows ~ Lextin Academy ~ The Canadian Homeschooler ~ School Time Snippets ~ Peakle Pie ~ Mom's Heart ~ A Moment in our World ~ Every Bed of Roses ~ Finchnwren ~ At Home Where Life Happens ~ Suncoast Momma ~ The Library Adventure ~ Embracing Destiny ~ Day by Day in our World ~ Our Homeschool Studio ~ A "Peace" of Mind ~ Thou Shall Not Whine ~ SAHM I am ~ eLeMeNo-P Kids ~ Simple Living Mama

 Follow Poppins Book Nook on Pinterest
Clip art by: Melon Headz