Vehicle talking box

Target: attention and listening

• Who's talking?

  You will need all the vehicles in the box for this activity. 

  Take the lid off the box (keeping the contents hidden from the children). You can use this as the introduction to the box. 

  Make it enticing, “I wonder what’s in here? What could it be? I can hear something talking. Let’s listen!” Put your hand to your ear to show the children that you’re listening.

  Make the noise of 1 of the vehicles, such as “choo choo”. Ask the children, “Who’s talking?” 

  If they don’t answer immediately, make the sound again and say “Listen, again”. If they are still unable to guess correctly give them a choice of what it could be. For example, “Is it an aeroplane or a train?”

  When they’ve identified what vehicle is talking, take the vehicle out of the box.

  Continue making the sounds of the vehicles until you have identified all of the vehicles in the box.

  To extend the activity, leave all the vehicles in the centre of the group. Allow the children to take turns making a vehicle sound for the other children to guess. Each time they guess correctly place the vehicle back in the box.

  ---

  Idea taken from Early Listening Skills by Diana Williams. 

  You may wish to purchase Listening Lotto, available from LDA Resources.

Target: turn-taking

• I'm driving

  You will need all the vehicles in the box for this activity. 

  Sit the children in a circle. Choose 1 of the vehicles in the box, such as the car. Make the sound it makes, for example "brrm brrm". 

  Tell the children that you are going to drive the car. Say to the children, "I'm going to drive the car to..." and name one of the children. Push the car to that child. Then encourage the child to choose who they are going to drive the car to. Encourage the children to make the sound of the vehicle as they drive it. 

• Let's hide

  You will need all the vehicles in the box for this activity. 

  Take the vehicles out of the box 1 at a time. Talk about what each vehicle is called. You could start this activity with “Who’s talking?” to tune in the children’s listening.

  Ask the children to close their eyes. Place the vehicles around the room (so that they are still visible). Make it into a hiding game by saying “All of the vehicles are hiding from us. I need you to go and find them for me. Jo (gain the child’s attention first by calling their name) can you go and find the car”.

• Let's hide top tips

  • Repeat the instructions, 'Find the car. Where's the car?" Emphasise the key word (car).
  • Use pointing to show the child which direction to go in. 
  • Ask another child to go with them to help.

• Let's drive

  You will need all the vehicles in the box for this activity. 

  Sit the children in a circle. Choose 1 of the vehicles in the box. Name it, such as "train". Choose another vehicle, such as the bus.

  Put the train and the bus in the middle of the circle. Tell the children they are going to drive the train or the bus. Encourage the children to listen, "I'm going to drive the train to John." Push the train to that child. Then drive the train back to the centre of the circle. 

  Say to each child in turn, "Drive the train (choose a vehicle) to Sophie (name one of the children)".

• Let's drive top tips

  • Make sure the child is looking at you before giving the instruction. You can do this by calling their name first. 
  • Repeat the instruction again if they do not respond.
  • If they pick up the wrong vehicle or drive it to the wrong place, encourage them to “listen again” and then repeat the instruction.
  • If they are still unsure then break the instruction into 2 parts. For example, “Find the train”. When they have found the train then say, “Drive it to Sophie”.

• Big/little concepts and under/over concepts

  Place the following items into the box:

  • vehicles
  • bridge
  • bigger or smaller vehicles than those already in the box

  Make a bridge with the children (this could be made out of bricks or from a train set). Talk about what it's called, for example "It's a bridge. Look... things can go under the bridge". Demonstrate this with 1 of the vehicles. Say "Things can go over the bridge". Demonstrate this with 1 of the vehicles. 

  You will now need the bigger or smaller vehicles. You can find these before the session. Or, if you think the children will understand, ask the children to go on a mission around the setting. Can they find a car that is bigger/smaller than this one? Use bigger or smaller depending on what you know is available in your setting. Be aware that bigger/smaller is a harder concept to grasp than big/small. 

  Place the selection of big/little vehicles next to the bridge. The more vehicles to choose from, the more time it will take for the children to find the right one. 

  Create a story, such as "All the vehicles want to go out for the day." You could have a carpet mat or a toy park on the other side of the bridge. Then give the children an instruction, "Ryan can you drive the big car over the bridge?" Emphasise the key words, big, car, over.

Target: talking (using language)

• What's in the bag?

  You will need the vehicles in the box and a cloth bag. 

  Encourage all the children to close their eyes. Place 1 of the vehicles from the talking box in a cloth bag. The children can open their eyes again and as the children pass the bag round everyone sings:

  This is the way we pass the bag, pass the bag, pass the bag
  This is the way we pass the bag,
  I wonder what’s inside?
  (Sing to the tune: Here we go round the mulberry bush)

  When the song stops, the bag stops with that child. The child needs to take the vehicle out of the bag, and say what it is. All of the other children make the sound of the vehicle.

  Then encourage the children to close their eyes and you can swap the vehicle in the bag for a new vehicle. Then sing again.

  Don’t force children to name what it is. If they are unsure, offer them a choice, like "Is it a bus or a car?".

• Where does it go?

  You will need all the vehicles in the box and a carpet mat that includes roads, water and railway. If you don't have one, ask the children to make their own on a large sheet of paper or card.

  As you take each vehicle out of the box, talk about where it would go on the mat. Does it go on water or on the road? Talk about why you think it goes there. For example, it has wheels so that it can go on the road. Or it has wings so it can fly in the sky.

• It's story time

  You'll need some story books in your setting for this activity. 

  Link the vehicles in the box with a story from your setting. Each time one of the vehicles is mentioned in the story, take the vehicle out of the box.

  Make comments about what happened in the story, like "That was a big boat". This will encourage children to use language more than it would to ask them questions. But here are some questions you could ask about the story.

  Easy questions include:

  • What is this?
  • Who is on the road? 
  • Where's the boat?

  Harder questions include:

  • How did the bridge go up?
  • What will happen next?

  Asking 'why?' questions are hardest. Remember, there could be lots of different answers. 

  Extending the activity

  Take 1 vehicle at a time out of the box and encourage the children to tell their own story. Each time 1 of the vehicles is mentioned in the story, take the vehicle out of the box.

  You could bring in other items from around your setting to link into the story. Or encourage children to go and find something.

Target: play and imagination

• Let's pretend

  You will need chairs and pretend money or tickets.

  Encourage the children to talk about whether they have been on a bus before. Introduce the idea: "Let's make a bus! What do we need?" This could include chairs to sit on, a driver, tickets and money. 

  Model to the children the language you might use on a bus, for example "I want to go to...?" How much is it? Can I sit here?"

Target: speech and sound awareness

These activities are for older children.

• Let's clap

  You will need all the vehicles in the box.

  Open the box. Take 1 of the vehicles out of the box. Encourage the children to name it, such as “aeroplane”. Show the children how you can clap the word, for example “aeroplane” has 3 claps (3 syllables). 

  Extending the activity

  Some children will be able to count the number of claps immediately. Other children will need some support. Use something visual for the children to see as you count, such as bricks. Use 1 brick for each syllable/clap. As the children become more confident, encourage them to take the bricks out as you say the word. 

  Clap the name of the vehicle without saying the word. Can the children guess which word you clapped?

  • Aeroplane has 3 syllables/claps.
  • Digger has 2 syllables/claps.
  • Car has 1 syllable/clap.
  • Train has 1 syllable/clap.
  • Fire engine has 3 syllables/claps.
  • Police car has 3 syllables/claps.
  • Motorbike has 3 syllables/claps.

  Be aware of how accents affect the number of syllables the word may have. For example, some people emphasise 2 parts in the word "fir-e" and others just one "fire". Also some people say "p'lice car" and others "po-lice car". 

• What's my name?

  You will need all the vehicles in the box.

  Match names to the vehicles, using names that have the first sound of the vehicle. For example:

  • Doug the digger
  • Fred the fire engine
  • Peter the police car
  • Max the motorbike
  • Trixie the train
  • Carl the car

  You can also choose your own names. 

  Write the names of the vehicles on the name badges for the children to attach to the right vehicle. This encourages children to take an interest in print.

  Encourage the children to listen to the names as you read them. Read the first name, "Doug". Repeat it again "Doug", emphasising the first "d" sound slightly. Think aloud, "I wonder if it's Doug the digger or Doug the motorbike? I think Doug the digger sounds best. Can you hear those sounds children, Doug the digger?"

  Extending the activity 

  Incorporate the children's names into the activity, "I'm going to push Doug to Daisy. Are you ready Daisy? Who are you going to push it to next? David or Megan?" 

  You can make up some tongue twisters using the names of the vehicles. For example, Doug the digger is digging some dirt. Or, careful Carl the car, you might crash. 

  Remember, that letters in English can make more than 1 sound. It's the sounds that the children need to listen for in the sentence, so be careful about your choice of words. For example, "c" sounds like "k" in "car" but "s" in "circle". 

Target: singing

• Five little firemen

  Five little firemen standing in a row
  1 2 3 4 5 let's go
  Jump on the engine with a shout
  As quick as a wink the fire is out

  Four little firemen standing in a row
  1 2 3 4 shhh let's go
  Jump on the engine with a shout
  As quick as a wink the fire is out

  Three little firemen standing in a row
  1 2 3 shhh shhh let's go
  Jump on the engine with a shout
  As quick as a wink the fire is out

  Two little firemen standing in a row
  1 2 shhh shhh shhh let's go
  Jump on the engine with a shout
  As quick as a wink the fire is out

  One little firemen standing in a row
  1 shhh shhh shhh shhh let's go
  Jump on the engine with a shout
  As quick as a wink the fire is out

• 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

  The wipers on the bus
  Go swish swish swish
  Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish
  The wipers on the bus
  Go swish swish swish
  All day long

  The horn on the bus
  Goes beep beep beep...

  The mummies on the bus
  Go chatter chatter chatter...

• Bob the Builder has a garage

  Sing to the tune of Old MacDonald had a farm.

  Bob the Builder has a garage
  Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep
  And in that garage he had a fire engine
  Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep
  With a nee nor here and a nee nor there
  Here a nee nor there a nee nor everywhere
  Bob the Builder had a garage
  Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep

  Other vehicles that Bob the Builder could have in his garage include:

  • a car: brmm brmm
  • an aeroplane: neeaw
  • a helicopter: chopper chopper

• This is the way we cross the road

  Sing this to the tune of Here we go round the mulberry bush.

  This is the way we cross the road
  We cross the road, we cross the road.
  This is the way we cross the road
  We stop, we look, we listen.

  We stand at the kerb and we look both ways
  Look both ways, look both ways. 
  We stand at the kerb and we look both ways
  Before we cross the road.

  If the road is clear we cross the road
  Cross the road, cross the road.
  If the road is clear we cross the road
  We follow the green cross code.

• 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.