Tractors, planes boats and more – books for 5-7 years
If your little one loves cars, trains, boats and bikes here’s our collection of transport-themed picture books for you to borrow in Touch to See. We’ve also included some activity and play ideas.
This is a brilliant book combining magical diggers, a rescue adventure and the power of the imagination! When Teddy’s grandpa (Granbam) makes Teddy and his best friend Ruby some toy diggers they don’t realise how special they are . . . until they start to play with them and the diggers transform into flying diggers and swoop the children off for a fantastic jungle adventure. We’ve include Teddy and Ruby driving their diggers on the feely pictures, plus Granbam’s amazing invention shed.
Join in:
Whilst reading the book have tactile objects to hand, such as toy diggers and soft toy jungle animals and have a go at recreating some of the illustrations on the page.
Make a jungle mask out of a white paper plate and decorate it with tactile crafty bits such as dried pasta, wool, fabric and buttons.
Inspired by Granbam’s invention shed make a junk model of a digger. The diggers in this story are like the famous JCB diggers and you can find out more about these heavy vehicles on the JCB website. There are activities and ideas for fun stuff to do on an agricultural and wildlife theme – from creating a JCB birthday cake, to making a cardboard digger and going on a garden minibeast hunt. There’s also an “info zone” with facts and stats about the JCB fleet and videos of the vehicles in action.
I Wish I Were a Pilot
There are so many vehicles in this book to discover – both historical and modern. With playful rhyming text and brightly coloured artwork, this book introduces young explorers to the many forms of transport and travel. There’s a plane, hot air balloon, F1 car and even the Queen’s Coronation carriage. Your child will enjoy the descriptions and vehicle sound effects on the audio guide and the painted feely pictures include a hot air balloon, plane and submarine.
Join in:
Using the vehicles in the book as a starting point create a soundscape of vehicle sounds. Collect vehicle noises using the recording device on your phone, iPad or search online for sounds on TV or radio programmes that you can capture. Also, have fun recreating vehicle sounds by using your own voice! For example, try making the high-pitched sound of a Formula 1 car whizzing around the track, or a train sounding its horn as it passes through a station, or a bell on a bicycle. Record these and put them together to make your vehicle soundscape.
If We Had a Sailboat written by Jonathan Emmett and illustrated by Adrian Reynolds. Published by Oxford University Press.
If We Had a Sailboat
This is a romping rhyming book about make believe adventure, celebrating friendship and the power of the imagination. Set sail to a treasure island, take a train ride through a steamy jungle and meet a Martian in outer space. All these magical escapes begin in a back garden with two adventurous children and their dog. This book is great for imaginative play and has lots of vehicles to explore and enjoy, as well as fun characters like a pirate and cowboy.
Join in:
Make up your own adventure, inspired by the story, and turn household items into other objects – a pan lid could become a steering wheel, garden chairs could become passenger seats on an aircraft and so on.
Like the children in the book, use dressing-up clothes and accessories and pretend to be different characters in the story.
The children travel to lots of different parts of the world – from the jungle, to the desert and outer space so why not create a soundscape or music playlist to reflect these different environments.
More transport-themed titles… Quentin Blake’s Mrs Armitage, Queen of the Road has a car and 2 different motorbikes in it for your child to feel. On the boat theme the little boy in Oliver Jeffers’ Lost and Found builds a boat to row to the North Pole. And, of course, in Noah and the Animals, Noah builds a wonderful ark. In David Walliams’ The Slightly Annoying Elephant a large blue elephant rides a red bicycle wearing a helmet. In each of these books there are feely pictures of vehicles for your child to explore.
Borrow The Flying Diggers from our FREE library
Borrow I Wish I Were a Pilot from our FREE library
Borrow If We Had a Sailboat from our FREE library
Borrow Mrs Armitage, Queen of the Road from our FREE library
