The open highway beckons, so top off the tank, jump in the truck, crank the tunes, and let the cows do the driving. Wait a minute…COWS?
We read Sakes Alive! A Cattle Drive, written by Karma Wilson, and illustrated by Karla Firehammer (Little, Brown, 2005). When two inquisitive cows lift the truck keys from Farmer’s pocket, they quickly learn (as does the rest of the town) that cows can’t drive. But they can inspire a bit of a parade!
We crafted a pull string truck and put two toilet paper tube cows in the front seat. Then the story time kids drove across scenic New Jersey, complete with billboards, pit stops, and of course…tolls.
You’ll need:
- 1 small tissue box
- 1 pickup truck template printed on 8.5″ x 11″ card stock
- 4 circles of black construction paper (approximately 2.5″ in diameter)
- A piece of string (approximately 24″ long)
- 1 mini craft stick
- 3 toilet paper tubes
- 1 rectangle of poster board (approximately 4.5″ x 5″)
- 1 open highway (more on this below!)
- Hot glue
The truck for this project is a duplicate from our “Ultimate Road Trip” post (you’ll find the instructions here) with one exception: we added a front seat for our cows to sit in.
To make the seat, cut a toilet paper tube in half. Fold a rectangle of poster board in two, then hot glue the toilet paper tube “legs” to the bottom of the poster board seat. Secure the completed seat to the inside of your truck with hot glue. Here’s a shot of the front seat from the back of the truck:
The cows are simply toilet paper tubes, wrapped in white construction paper, with construction paper ears and hair tufts. Decorate with markers. We used eye stickers, but you can draw the eyes on with markers too.
Once the truck and cows are done, it’s time to hit the road! We crafted a New Jersey road adventure, which we will share below. A simplified version of this could be print outs of buildings, billboards, and road signs. Or heck, just draw some directional arrows on Post It notes! Our journey begins at the “Welcome to New Jersey” sign…
See that cute little gas station in the background? Here’s a close up of it. Katie crafted the nozzles out of mesh tubing and kiddie scissors. The pointy end of the scissors are shoved into a bit of PVC pipe.
You might also want to stop at Shake Shack for a little treat. These were cotton ball shakes in little sample cups served with a snippet of paper straw. The stand was run by a volunteer older kid.
Round the corner, more billboards…
And one more turn takes you to Katie’s amazingly crafted EZ Pass toll booth!
Then it’s just a quick jump onto the NJ Turnpike to begin the loop anew!
But keep an eye on your speedometer, because there was a cop on the premises to catch cows over the speed limit! This was another older kid volunteer. We had a police hat ready, some ready-to-fill speeding tickets, and a siren sound effect on my phone.
This kid played his part to the hilt, and his speeding tickets were hilarious! There was one speeding ticket for $9,000. And some double tickets. I must admit, I gave out a couple tickets too.
By the way…Katie you still owe me $1000 for your story time speeding ticket. Just sayin’.