Sally Sutton and Brian Lovelock have teamed up once again to bring another exciting read aloud vehicle book to life. Sutton's latest book Wheels continues in the same fashion as her other books using descriptive text and sneak peek illustrations to get readers to guess what's coming next. In Wheels a brother and sister are watching vehicles pass down a town street and have to guess what's coming each time they see some wheels.
Rumbly wheels, grumbly wheels,
Hauling-up-the-hill wheels.
Wheels go fast, wheels go slow.
Shout what's coming, if you know!
Wheels is a great interactive read aloud book for story time or groups with toddlers and preschoolers at kindy or the library. Sutton successfully holds their interest by making them part of the story by guessing what's coming on the next page. It's also great for emergent readers with its simple, rhyming text.
Both of my girls {6&2yrs old} loved reading this book. My big girl could read it herself and my toddler loves guessing what's coming next by studying the illustrations. We love doing bookish play activities in this house, so after we read Wheels I set up a little Wheels bookish play activity for my toddler to play with {see below}. Our other favourite Sally Sutton books that are great to read aloud {and for bookish play} include Dig, Dump, Roll, Roadworks, Demolition and Construction.
<< Please note this activity is intended to be done under full adult supervision >>
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
- Road tape
- A metal baking tray
I had so many ideas for bookish play after reading Wheels, however in the end I decided to keep it simple and interactive {just like the book}. I chose magnet play because my toddler is currently obsessed with our magnetic tiles, so I knew she'd love the fact that the vehicles stuck to the tray. We also already had the Melissa & Doug vehicle magnet set and lots of the vehicles in the set match up with ones mentioned in Wheels. We also have a stash of road tape that I got from Kmart a while ago because I knew it'd come in handy for play activities.
The set up for this magnet bookish play literally took me about 2 minutes. I just cut some road tape to fit the bottom of our brownie pan and stuck it on then gave her the pan, magnets and book. We read the book and as we guessed what vehicle was coming in the story she found it from the magnets and stuck it on the pan. She also got the magnets and matched them up with the pictures in the book itself.
After a while she got bored with matching the vehicles so she used them on the pan to come up with her own story. It was a great activity for language development as we discussed the types of vehicles as well as their colours, size and the sounds they make as they're driving. It's also an easy activity to pack up and bring back out later and can be portable if you use it with a small whiteboard instead of a baking tray/pan.
Disclosure ~ We were kindly gifted a copy of Wheels from Walker Books Australia for the purpose of review. I did not receive compensation for this post, however this post contains some affiliate links which means I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you, should you make a purchase.
