Construction Trucks by Jennifer Dussling

Prompts
Use the following questions after the second or third reading of Blueberries for Sal. There are questions for every one or two pages of the story.

1. What is happening in this picture? (A woman is reading the plans for a new house.)
2. What do these trucks do? (These bulldozers dig the big rocks out of the ground and break up hard ground.)
3. What does the blue truck do? (It digs the hole for the house.)
4. Have you ever seen a backhoe dig a big hole for a building?
5. How are these two trucks alike? (Both trucks have a payloader that pushes dirt and picks it up.)
6. How are they different? (The backhoe loader has a payloader on one end and a backhoe on the other.)
7. Have you ever seen a dump truck? What can dump trucks carry?
8. What is happening in this picture? (The cement is coming out of the cement mixer. It becomes the walls and the floor of the basement.)
9. What is happening to the big tree? (It is being moved to the new house.)
10. What are the trucks going to help build here? (They will help build a new road.)
11. What does the bulldozer do?
(It clears away small trees and bushes.)
12. What does the motor grader do? (It smooths the ground out.)
13. Is this road ready for cars to drive on? Why? (This road is not ready yet. The workers are putting on the asphalt.)
14. What is happening in this picture? (People are looking through the fence to see the garage.)
15. What are these trucks doing? (They are smashing the garage down and breaking up the floor of the garage.)
16. Have you ever seen a truck with a hammer like this one? What did it sound like?
17. What kind of building are these people working on? (They are building a skyscraper.)
18. What are the cranes lifting? (The cranes are lifting building materials, boards, and steel girders.)
19. How does the concrete get up to the higher floors? (The concrete is pushed up through a pipe by a concrete pump.)
20. How many trucks do you see? Let's count them together.

Vocabulary

The words listed below come from the story and its pictures. As you page through the book, point to the pictures and ask the child to name the object or the action shown. This will help the child learn new words. You can use the words below, or you can choose words you think will interest the children. Below are words for every one or two pages of the story.

• woman, jeans, rocks, trees
• bulldozer, boulder, ripper, hard hat, driver
• digging, backhoe, tracks, cab
• payloader, pushing, dirt, bucket, tire
• dump truck, dumping, mirror, opening, tilting
• concrete mixer, concrete, barrel, foundation
• tree spade burrow, pine tree, building
• motor grader, bulldozer, smoothing
• paving truck, asphalt, roller, driving, sweeping
• peeking, traffic light, street sign, garage
• wrecking ball, ground crane, hammer, pavement
• pile driver, steep posts, skyscraper
• lifting, crane, steel beams
• concrete pump, backing up, pipe
• waving