Pickup Trucks

My library added the big book LITTLE BLUE TRUCK LEADS THE WAY by Alice Schertle to our storytime collection recently.  I began planning a storytime around it and discovered that there were enough good pickup truck books to narrow my theme to that.  The next thing I needed was to find some flannel boards.  I found a great rhyme, "Five in the Truck" at King County Library System's Fingerplays, Rhymes and Songs page.  I also found a simple truck pattern at Honeybunch Boutique that was meant for quilters but which worked well for a flannel board pattern once I enlarged it.

 

 

The rhyme (based on "Five in the Bed") starts with Five in the Truck and the little hen clucked, "Move over, move over".  Instead of using five chickens, I used five wooden farm animals I had and just added some velcro to the back.  This fits in very well with the books FARMER DALE'S RED PICKUP TRUCK by Lisa Wheeler and MINERVA LOUISE AND THE RED TRUCK by Janet Morgan Stoeke. 

 

I used the same pattern, just not as big, to make several trucks in various colors.

 

 

 

I wrote two rhymes that I could use with these, one of which needs a duck and some other creatures that will fit behind the trucks.  This first rhyme can be used with different colored trucks or numbered trucks.

 

STUCK BEHIND THE TRUCK

 

My friend duck

Is hidden behind a truck.

 

Is my friend duck

Behind the _____ truck?

 

If no:

No, that's not duck

Behind the _____truck.

That's.....

 

If yes:

Yes, that's duck

Behind the ______truck!

But if duck is behind the _____truck

Who's behind the _____truck?

 

 

 

These trucks were made from card stock so I can also attach them to sticks for stick puppets if I want and have kids help with the second rhyme/song.

 

MY OLD TRUCK

tune:  "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush"

 

 

My old blue truck goes bumping along, bumping along, bumping along.

My old blue truck goes bumping along, all the way to town.

 

 

Different colors & descriptive words can replace the underlined ones.  For example, bumping can become bouncing, zipping, speeding, rolling, cruising, or crawling.

 

 

For an action song, I adapted "Wheels on the Bus" to "Wheels on the Truck" and adjusted verses accordingly.