Little Blue Truck activities for preschool
Start with one little beep and see who answers. In Little Blue Truck, written by Alice Schertle and illustrated by Jill McElmurry, Blue greets the animals along the road. Later, when a dump truck gets stuck and Blue needs help too, those friendly hellos matter. The sounds give children an easy way into the read-aloud. The muddy rescue gives them something to act out after the book is closed.
Try a sound game on your first reading, a felt board rescue on the next, and a pretend trip to the barn when children are ready to tell a story of their own. Each activity uses a small group of pieces. You can find more book-and-activity pairings in Storytime Ideas.
Set out Blue and a few animal friends
For the sound game, start with the Blue circle and two animals. The printable circles with speech bubbles make the sounds easy to find during a read-aloud. Print the pages you need on cardstock. Follow the circle and speech-bubble outlines when you cut, leaving a little white space around both. Tape a wide craft stick to the back of Blue so there’s room for a child to hold it below the picture. The animal pieces can stay flat on the table or become puppets for extra helpers.
The PDF also includes pieces cut around the shapes, including a muddy patch and a barn. Save those for the felt board or for tabletop play. If you plan to reuse the pieces on a felt board, test a hook-side dot on the back of one cardstock piece first. Check that a child can take it down without pulling the backing loose. For more setup ideas, see the classroom flannel board guide.
Activity 1. Say hello with a stick-puppet sound game
Show Blue beside the book cover and ask children what sound he might make. Invite them to answer with a beep or a pretend push of a horn. Then bring out the sheep and cow circles. Hold up one at a time and let children answer with a baa or a moo. Let the sounds be short so everyone can hear the page you’re about to read.
Give the Blue puppet to one child and the animal cards to two others. When you reach an animal’s greeting, pause for that child to lift the matching piece. Ask the rest of the group to make the sound with them. If you’re reading one-on-one, give your child two animals to choose from while you hold Blue. Swap roles on the next page or the next reading.
To help a child who’s still learning the animals, show the picture before asking for its sound. You might say, “Here’s the cow. Can you find the cow on the page?” Once they point to it, invite them to moo. Children can also tap a card or give a quiet wave to Blue. For another read-aloud with color and animal clues, try the Brown Bear felt board activity.
On a reread, turn two animal pieces face up and make one sound without showing which one you picked. Ask a child to bring you the animal they think made it. If their choice surprises you, look at the two pieces together and make both sounds. Then let them be the caller while you guess. For more printable stories to keep by your reading spot, see what’s inside Storytime Club.
Activity 2. Retell the muddy rescue on a felt board
Put the muddy patch near the middle of the board. Keep Blue, the dump truck, and a few animal helpers off to one side. Let the children decide where the road should go. You can use the printable winding road beside the mud or leave open felt for the trucks to travel across. Before you start, invite a child to drive the dump truck up to the edge of the mud.
Read or recap the part where the dump truck gets stuck. Slide it onto the mud. Then have a child move Blue close enough to help. Pause when Blue needs help too. Ask, “Who could come when Blue calls?” Give a child an animal and let them place it behind Blue. Add a few more animals as children name them. When the helpers are ready, let the group make one gentle pushing motion while you move both trucks onto clear ground.
Run through the rescue again with just three pauses. First, the dump truck gets stuck. Next, Blue tries to help. Last, the animals work together to get the trucks out. Invite one child to point to the pieces as another tells what happened. If they skip a step, move Blue back toward the mud and ask what he was trying to do. For more ways to leave a retell out for children to revisit, see the felt board literacy center guide.
Ask one question after the pieces are back on dry ground. Why did the animals come? Let children connect the rescue to the earlier greetings or talk about a time they helped a friend. A child who says “because Blue was stuck” has noticed an important part of the story. Another might remember that Blue had greeted the animals along the way. For a different story with a short sequence children can rebuild, try If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
Activity 3. Give Blue a new job at the barn
Put the barn on one side of the table or magnetic tray and the road on the other. Set out Blue and two or three animals. Say that Blue is going to the barn and invite a child to decide why. Maybe the sheep wants a ride, or the cow is looking for a friend. Let the child put the pieces where they want the story to start.
Ask the child to choose one thing that happens on the way. Blue might meet an animal that wants to tag along, or the road might be too muddy to cross. Then ask what Blue and the animals could do together. Give children time to move the pieces while they work it out. If they want a sound to mark the next turn, they can give Blue a little beep or choose one of the separate speech bubbles from the printable set.
For partners, give one child Blue and the other an animal. Let the first child drive to the barn and ask for help with something. The second child answers by moving the animal or using its sound. Then switch roles. Children can repeat a short trip several times with a different animal each time. If they want to make a road sign or a place for Blue to park, put scrap paper and crayons nearby. Browse the free preschool worksheet themes for another activity to pair with storytime.
When a child finishes a trip, ask them to show a friend where Blue started and where he ended. If the child wants a longer story, add a second stop and ask what happened between the two places. Try their version once before suggesting another idea. It’s their turn to decide whether Blue heads home, carries an animal to the barn, or goes back to help the dump truck. If you like having printable pieces ready for child-led retells, see annual Storytime Club signup.
For one more turn, set out the frog and the sheep and ask which one Blue should meet at the barn door. After the child chooses, ask them to add one detail about the visit. The frog could be looking for a puddle, or the sheep could be waiting for another friend. If the children give different answers, let each one move the pieces through their own version. You can leave the barn and road out at a center the next day and see which story they return to.
Keep a few pieces ready for the next read-aloud
Store Blue, the dump truck, and two favorite animals near the book. The next time someone asks for the story, let them choose the sound game or the rescue. You can keep the rest of the pieces in an envelope so it’s easy to bring back the barn or the mud when children ask for it. A child who only wanted to beep on the first reading might be ready to move Blue across the board the next time.
Before putting the pieces away, ask children which friend they’d bring on another ride and why. Someone might pick the sheep because its baa is fun to say. Someone else might take the cow because it helped. Either answer can start the next little story. For another chance to match a picture to something that happened in a book, try Dog’s Colorful Day preschool activities.
