Little Blue Truck

This activity is based on the wonderful book ‘Little Blue Truck’ by Alice Schertle. It is a lovely activity for any child who loves farm animals and vehicles. This is one of my son’s favourite rhyming books and will often ask for us to read, rap or sing it again and again. We’ve read the book so many times now we all know it off by heart. The story teaches us the value of being kind and the importance of having friends.

Read more here, why rhyming books are fantastic for a child’s development of language and reading skills.

Set Up

The activity was created with bits and pieces from the kitchen cupboard and the toy box. The farmyard animals and digger have been a fantastic investment because we have used them in so many activities.

I created the muddy road using a mix of cocoa powder, coffee and quinoa. The grass is rice and green food colouring (which does need to be prepared a few hours beforehand) and the bales of hay are shredded wheat.

For this type of activity I always put a shower curtain down to contain some of the mess. Once the activity is finished the mess can be shaken into the bin and the shower curtain put straight into the washing machine.

My little one loved this activity. He needed very little help in retelling the story. The little blue truck immediately started pushing the big yellow truck out of the mud and unprompted my son started saying lines from the story: “I’m stuck, I’m stuck.”

I recited some of the lines as well and encouraged my son to finish the lines for me.

My son happily played with this small world activity for ages. He thoroughly enjoyed it. It was such an easy and quick small world activity to set up, for toddlers and older children, based on a favourite rhyming book. We will definitely be doing this activity at home again.