Please welcome authors Brooke Hartman and Amy Baron to Dynamic Book Duos – a blog featuring two books that pair together in a meaningful way along with educational activities to strengthen reading skills. This week’s pairing is for little fans of airplanes and construction equipment.
PERFECT PAIR: For Little Fans of Airplanes and Construction Equipment
Both The Littlest Airplane written by Brooke Hartman and illustrated by John Joseph and The Gentle Bulldozer written by Amy Baron and illustrated by Rogerio Coelho feature airplanes and construction equipment. If your child loves things that go paired with gentle life lessons, light adventure, and big heart, these books will be their new favorites.
Book 1: The Littlest Airplane
At a landing strip in the far north, a little bush plane watches quietly as bigger, stronger, faster planes take off for adventure. But when a storm hits and hikers are stranded on the mountain, who will come to the rescue? Told in rhyming verse with bright illustrations, The Littlest Airplane soars high with heart and excitement.
Book 2: The Gentle Bulldozer
Bulldozer spends his days on a construction site. He and his friends are tasked with an important job: to tear things down and smash things up. But Bulldozer dreams of something bigger–could he and his crew be made for more than this?
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES:
Activities for The Littlest Airplane:
Maze:
Word Search:
Activities for The Gentle Bulldozer:
Construction Zone Sensory Bin
Fill a large plastic container with sand, rocks, toy trucks, and construction signs. To make “sand-cement,” mix sand with shaving cream.
Activity for Both Books:
City Scene:
Draw a city or town that includes airplane and construction characters from both books. What jobs are these characters doing to help the town or others in the scene? What other things that go can you add to the scene that might help with other jobs (hint: think of fire trucks or other emergency vehicles, mail or delivery trucks, busses, taxis, and helicopters).