Skip to content

Red Car Red Bus

red car red busSusan Steggall
Francis Lincoln 
Age 0-5

The book has stunning illustrations of changing street scenes, cars, buses and trucks, giving lots to talk about. The book introduces the idea of patterns with alternating vehicles of different colours. The text is very simple but rhythmic and patterned making it fun to join in with.

lovemybooksactivitiesorangecentre

Share the story

Talk about the pictures
Look at the book with your child and talk about what is happening and what interests them in the illustrations.
Look closely together at the mother and child running for the bus, what happens to teddy, and how the lady in the red car helps.

Read aloud
When you look at the book again read the words emphasising the rhythm as you do. With very small children you could bounce them on your knee to the rhythm as you read.

Join in
The next time you share the book your child could join in with the reading. One way to do this is by reading alternate phrases and the words ‘red bus’ together

You: yellow car

Child :red car

Both: red bus

Do some counting
There are lots of things to count on the different pages including the number of people at bus stop the number of cars or vans on the road.

Look at the numbers on the houses, with 4 and 5 year olds you could talk about odd and even numbers and count in odds or evens.

 

Things to make and do

Do some sorting
Collect toy vehicles together, talk about their colours and  and sort them into groups. How many red vehicles are there? How many blue? Do you have a car at home? If so what colour is that?

Play the story
Arrange toy vehicles in different patterns as if they are on a road. You could make up words for the pattern created like the words in the story. 

Make a picture
Help your child to make a picture collage of a street scene using torn newspaper for the road and tissue paper or torn magazines for bushes, trees and buildings. Paint cars and a bus on separate sheets of paper. Cut out and arrange and stick the painted vehicles on the background

Out and about
Do some car spotting, eg you could count the number of red cars you see when you go out for a walk or car journey.


Find out more

Look out for more books by Susan Steggall here

Rattle and Rap

The Diggers are Coming

Busy Boats

On the Road

The Life of a Car