Little Blue truck is bringing lettuce into the city.  The city is big and moves quickly.  In this story Little Blue Truck saves a  rush hour nightmare and gets the lettuce delivered to the people.

Materials

• Several small paper plates
• 5-8 Matchbox or other smaller type car
• Rhyming word cards
• Night and day cards
• Truck Picture
• Several dish towels or old bath towels

 Vocabulary

• Wrangle-to argue
• Transportation-a way to get from here to there

Before Reading the Story

Tell the children that your story today is about a truck that is going to the city. Explain that a truck is a kind of transportation. Ask the children to think of all the different kinds of transportation that they can. Write them on a sheet of paper and hang it on the wall.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding;understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.  AND Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; Begins to make comparisons among several objects based on a single attribute.

 Reading the Story

On the first page with words (Horn went Beep) read the sign City Limits to the children and ask them if they can tell what time of day it is. Point out the stars; the auto lights, the city lights, and skunks are generally nocturnal. When you get to the page with the double decker bus, stop and ask the children how it makes them feel (I think he’s mad! It looks mean. It’s got frowny teeth.). On the page with the traffic jam and everybody starts to shout and wrangle, ask the children what they think is going to happen. On the page where the mayor is handing out the boxes of lettuce, ask the children if they know why the truck was in the city (it is delivering lettuce from the farm to the store)

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.  AND Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

 After Reading the Story

Turn to the page where there is the traffic jam and all the vehicles are in a tangle. Ask the children if they can remember what the faces of the many cars and trucks looked like (frowns, anger, mean). If not flip back a page or two so the children can see the vehicle faces. Ask them why they think the vehicles all looked so angry (they were stuck in traffic and nobody can move). Ask has this ever happened to you? Now ask who can remember how the problem was fixed (they all took turns, they cooperated). Give some examples of how the children have taken turns recently or cooperated with each other to get a job done (Remember when everybody clogged the drinking fountain yesterday? We had to get in line and take turns. This morning when Clarissa came to school, she waited until Lee hung his coat up before she tried to get past him). Remind the children that we take turns and cooperate with each other to stay safe and so everybody can have fun at school. This conversation has lead to discussing bullying in the classroom. If your class goes in this direction, allow them to talk about it without naming names. “I hear it makes you mad when someone pushes you out of the way”. “I hear it upsets you when another child takes a toy away from you”. If your discussion goes in this direction, make sure to let the children know that they can ask you or any other adult for help.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.  AND Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; shows increasing abilities to use compromise and discussion in working, playing, and resolving conflicts with peers.

Discovery

Have the children sort the day and night cards.

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; Begins to make comparisons among several objects based on a single attribute.

Music and Movement

Put on music that is both fast and slow and let the children dance to it. There is a fun song called Freeze by Greg and Steve (available on YouTube).

Creative Arts/Movement; shows growth in moving in time to different patterns of beat and rhythm in music.

In the story the marching band joined the parade. Give the children instruments and have your own parade around the classroom. Can the children play their instruments very fast? Very slow? Over their heads? Behind their backs? While walking on tip toe? While sliding side to side?

 Creative Arts/Music; experiments with a variety of musical instruments.

Blocks

Challenge the children to make a city out of blocks. If you have a road map, put it onto the floor and encourage the children to make city skyscrapers along it. If you do not have a road, use a piece of chalk or masking tape to mark out several roads on the floor for the children to build around.

Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in and complete a variety of tasks, activities, projects, and experiences.  AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors.

 Art

Let the children paint with small cars today. Put out large sheets of construction paper and plates of paint in various colors. Put a small car (matchbox) in each color of paint. The children drive the car through the paint and then onto their picture.  While they are painting, talk to them about where they might be driving their car and about auto safety rules.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; begins to express and understand concepts and language of geography in the contexts of the classroom, home, and community.  AND Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; builds awareness and ability to follow basic health and safety rules such as fire safety, traffic and pedestrian safety, and responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances, and activities.

Sand and Water

Put baby dolls in with water today.  Add several towels for the children to dry the babies after they give them a bath.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; participates in a variety of dramatic play activities that become more extended and complex.

Library and Writing

Put out many non-fiction books about transportation that you might have.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest in reading related activities; such as having a favorite story read; choosing to look at books; drawing pictures based on stories; asking to take books home; going to the library; and engaging in pretend reading with other children.

Remind the children that in the story that there were many rhyming words, read a page or two to the children so they can hear the rhyming. Put out rhyming word cards for the children to sort and match.

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; progresses in recognizing matching sounds and rhymes in familiar words, games, songs, stories, and poems.

 Dramatic Play

Put out some props that the children can use to pretend to fix cars and trucks. A chair can become a car and a box as a toolbox with some of the following items inside; flashlight, rag, screwdriver, old keys, gloves, an air pump, and a wrench.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

 Math and Manipulatives

Give each child a little blue truck picture. They can color it and then cut out pictures of things that they would like to deliver to the school. This works well if you give the children old school supplies catalogs. It’s fun to see what things the children would like to deliver to the school.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Outdoor Play

Play Follow the Leader. As you lead the children around the playground doing various gross motors, find places where you can have a traffic jam. At this point have another become the leader and everybody follow them about. When you are ready for a new leader, find a crowded place and have another traffic jam. (On my playground there are several trees near the fence. If everybody tries to get around and beside these trees, it gets very crowded).

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions; to take turns in games and using materials; and to interact with others without being overly submissive or directive.

Transitions

As the children line up, ask the first child to step into line. Ask the next child to get first in line. Ask the next child to get last in line. Ask the next child to get first in line, etc. until all the children are lined up by being called to go either first or last.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and positions of objects, and words such as up, down, over, under, top, bottom, inside, outside, in front, behind.

 Dear Parent, today we read a story where everybody was in a hurry and became angry. Remember that there are times when it is healthy to slow down and take your time. When everybody works together, it all works out better in the end.

Resources