Big Machines

This week, I am reading Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton, with Miss Belle and Mr Exuberance.

We will be using ideas from the Five in a Row manual, volume 1, along with some other ideas.

One of the things that we did today was to look at a video of a steam shovel. Steam shovels were old fashioned when Mile Mulligan and his steam shovel was published in 1939 so it was helpful for the children to see what one really looks like.

I've put a few other books together around Big Machines.
The first is another by Virginia Lee Burton, Katy and the big snow.

We've loved these two books that we brought to go with Five in a Row. One of my readers gave a really helpful list of her favourite, or perhaps I should write favorite, US authors and included Virginia Lee Burton. As a result, I've been inspired to order another title-thank you Debbie.

Our other big machine books are by different authors.
Digby and the big flood by Alan Aburrow-Newman is about how a digger saves a town from a flood.
This is one of those books that is being read for the fifth time, in this household.

Richard Scarry's Busy workers isn't just about big machines but has a couple of pages about construction sites and the types of machines found there.

Finally, The building site by Moira Butterfield is a very simple book with flaps. I have to make sure that the flaps are openned fairly as it is much loved.

 We did several further activities around this theme.