A story-time workshop: Who’s Driving? (Transport)

A story-time workshop involves a little more than reading a story, and it is a wonderful way to bring books to life and help children fall in love with the wonder of reading.

Who’s Driving? and Go Maisy, Go! were the two books that inspired this workshop. Both boys and girls enjoyed the session and the boats and water play have have entertained my own daughter for hours on end.

This workshop involves three stages:

Tuning In: Capturing the child’s interest and attention so they can gain as much from the story as possible

Reading the story

Making Connections: Providing the child with an experience that can help them relate to the story

The stages can take place in one session or they can take place over a number of days, depending on the age of the child. You will also find some other suggested activities and books at the bottom of this post.

This workshop is inspired by:

Who’s Driving? by Leo Timmers (Gecko Press). Read our review of the book for more information.

Go Maisy, Go! by Lucy Cousins (Walker Books). Read our review of this book for more information.

TUNING IN:

Match the key: I created sets of cardboard vehicles with matching keys in the same colours. Children randomly selected a coloured key and were encouraged to find the vehicle of the same colour.

Guess this sound: Make or play a variety of sounds created by different vehicles (e.g. train, helicopter, ambulance) and ask the children to guess which vehicle it is.

Sing songs and fingerplays about cars and other vehicles (See bottom of the post for some ideas)

READING THE STORY:

You can’t read these book without active involvement from children. They have been wonderfully created in a way which allows children to lift flaps, pull tabs and make predictions.

MAKING CONNECTIONS WITH THE STORY:

1. Make your own boat using materials from around home (egg cartons, yoghurt containers, straws, paper). You can decorate the boats with stickers, paint etc.

2. Kids then get to choose who’s driving their boat. (Some of our kids chose soldiers, dolphins and horses)

3. Boat Racing: Float your boats in water and race them by using a straw to blow them along the water.

RELATED SONGS AND FINGERPLAY RHYMES:

Take You Riding (Source: ABC Records and EMI Music, 1991, It’s Playschool-Songs from ABC Playschool CD, )

Take you riding in my car, car.

Take you riding in my car.

The engine it goes brrrm, brrrm.

The engine it goes Brrrm, brrrm.

Take you riding in my car

The windscreen wipers go swish, swish.

The windscreen wipers to swish, swish.

The windscreen wipers go swish, swish.

Take you riding in my car

The horn, it goes beep, beep.

Take you riding in my car

The Wheels on the Bus

The wheels on the bus go round and round,

Round and round,

Round and round.

The wheels on the bus go round and round,

All day long.

Repeat with:

*The driver on the bus says move on back

*The babies on the bus go waa, waa, waa

*The mothers on the bus go sssh, sssh, sssh

*The horn on the bus goes beep, beep, beep

*The wipers on the bus go, swish, swish, swish

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream.

If you see a crocodile,

Don’t forget to scream.

Row, row, row your boat gently to the shore

If you see a lion,

Don’t forget to roar.

Row, row, row your boat gently down the river,

If you see a polar bear, don’t forget to shiver.

Little Red Wagon

Bumping up and down in my little red wagon
Bumping up and down in my little red wagon
Bumping up and down in my little red wagon
Let’s ride off together!
Repeat using
* My little brown donkey
* My little black buggy
* My little blue trolley
* My little green airplane
* My little white sailboat

I’m A Little Airplane (Source: http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/transportation-rhymes.htm)

Sing to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot”

I’m a little airplane, (children raise arms at sides to shoulder height.)

Now watch me fly! (They spin one of their arms in front of them as if it were a propeller)

Here are my instruments

From down low to up high.(With their other arm, they reach from the ground to above their heads.)

First I get revved up. (Children make engine noises while still spinning their arms.)

Then I can fly, (Children raise arms to shoulder height.)

Lifting off the runway(They start walking forward.)

Up into the sky!

(They go up on their tiptoes and continue to move forward. Let them circle awhile before returning to their original positions.)

Twinkle Twinkle Rusty Car (Source: http://www.hummingbirded.com/transportation.html)
Sing to tune of twinkle, twinkle

Twinkle, twinkle chocolate bar
my dad drives a rusty car (make a stearing motion)
off with the break (lift break with hand or foot)
and on with the choke (press with thumb)
off we go in a cloud of smoke (coughing)
twinkle twinkle chocolate bar
my dad drives a rusty car (make a stearing motion)

Traffic light poem (Source: http://www.hummingbirded.com/transportation.html)
Red on top
Green below
Red means stop
Green means go
Yellow means wait
Even if you’re late.

Choo Choo Train (Source: http://www.hummingbirded.com/transportation.html)

This is a choo- choo train (bend arms at elbows)

Puffing down the track (rotate arms around)

Now it’s going forward (push arms forward)

Now it’s going back (arms backwards)

Now the bell is ringing (pull bell cord)

Now the whistle blows (hold fist near mouth)

and say “toot toot”

What a lot of noise it makes (cover ears)

Everywhere it goes (stretch out arms)

The Airplane (Source: http://www.hummingbirded.com/transportation.html)

The airplane has big wide wings (stretch out arms)

It’s propeller spins around and sings (make one arm go around)

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVV! (make the sound)

The airplane goes up in the sky (lift arms up and down)

Then down it goes just see it fly!

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVV! (make sound again)

Up, up, up, down, down, down (arms up and down)

Over every housetop in our town!

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVV! (make sound again)

My Bicycle (Source: http://www.hummingbirded.com/transportation.html)

One wheel, two wheels on the ground (revolve hand in forward circle)

My feet make the pedal go round and round (pedal with feet)

Handle bars help me steer so straight (pretend to steer)

Down the sidewalk and through the gate!

GOING FURTHER: Other activities

ACT

Personified Vehicles: In a large, open space use your body to move like particular vehicles.

PLAY

Create an obstacle course. You could make it large and act like vehicles yourselves or create a mini obstacle course for toy trucks, cars, boats and trains.

Stop/Go: Let your kids run around in the back yard or park. Use green and red signs as go and stop cues.

CREATE

Set up a road network with recycled materials (toilet rolls as tunnels etc.)

Make Teddy Bear in Mars Bar Snacks

Make your own paper plane

Use toy cars as painting tools

TALK

Tell a perpetual story:

“ I went on a very long trip in the (car, train, bus, plane) and I saw a (something starting with a)”

“ I went on a very long trip in the (car, train, bus, plane) and I saw a (something starting with b)”

“ I went on a very long trip in the (car, train, bus, plane) and I saw a (something starting with c)”

-Continue until you have been through each letter of the alphabet

-For extra difficulty, participants must repeat each line that has been said before their’s.

FIND OUT

Stand outside your home and undertake a Traffic Survey (types of vehicles, colours of vehicles, number of passengers etc)

OUT AND ABOUT

Visit a Traffic school

THINK

Choose a vehicle and use the BAR Thinker’s Key to make it more efficient: Make one part of the vehicle bigger, add something to it and remove something from it.

Other transportation books:

There are so many transportation books that I can’t keep track of them all. What other books have you read that would be a great match for these activities?

Here are some of our favourites:

Toy Boat by Randall de Seve and Loren Long

Who Sank the Boat, by Pamela Allen

Roadworks by Sally Sutton and Brian Lovelock

Spot’s Noisy Car by Eric Hill

Brmm Brmm Maisy by Lucy Cousins

Beep Beep, Let’s Go by Eleanor Taylor

Toot by Leo Timmers

Vroom by Leo Timmers

Brum by Leo Timmers

Plane, Train, Truck and Trolley by Peter Sheehan

And the Train goes by William Bee