Trains, Boats and Planes: Curriculum-linked activities

Mark making

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Invite the children to go on a markmaking adventure with all sorts of amazing vehicles! The book shows aeroplanes, trains, boats and even buses – but why stop there? Bring out lots of different vehicles, big and small, fast and slow, and let the children explore them all.

Dip the wheels into paint and let the vehicles zoom, roll, chug and sail across the paper to see what wonderful tracks and patterns they can create.

What shapes will the speedy cars make? How about the wiggly trails from the tractors or the splashes from the boats? Time to find out!

Designing Paper Aeroplanes

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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No… It’s a flying machine created by the children!

Invite them to design their very own skysoaring creations using nothing but paper and their brilliant imaginations. Paper aeroplanes are a fantastic way for children to plan, design, build and test their ideas – will their machine loop, glide or zoom? 

Use the book to spark their creativity and explore all the different shapes, folds and styles they can try. Encourage them to experiment, tweak their designs and see which flying machine can travel the highest, the farthest, the fastest, or with the fanciest tricks.

Exploring transport – how we travel

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Invite the children to become travel detectives and find out all the different ways they and their friends get to nursery each day. Do some children walk? Do others come by car, bike or scooter? Maybe someone even takes the bus!

Encourage the children to gather the information themselves – counting, asking questions and noticing patterns. Once they’ve collected their facts, they can work together to display their findings in fun ways: tally charts, simple graphs, pictures or even little vehicle drawings.

Let them share their discoveries with others.

Which way of travelling is the most popular? Which is the least? What surprised them?

Session Plans

For ideas on how to use this book in a Bookbug Session, please see the downloadable resource below!