Easy Garbage Truck Craft
- Gather your materials. You will need some plain construction paper or cardboard ( such as a cereal box), some green markers or paint, some black and brown construction paper, scissors, and glue.
- Draw one large square, one small square and an obtuse triangle on your cardboard.
- Have your child color or paint the shapes green, point out the shapes, and label them for your child. Try to avoid quizzing them, instead make it natural like ” Look we have a square, rectangle, and triangle, do you think we can turn them into a garbage truck? We used markers because we were taking a break from paint-eating.
- While they are coloring the shapes, cut out three large circles.
- Cut out the truck shapes
- Grab the brown piece of construction paper and the glue!
- Add the large square, small one, and triangle, so the triangle is only touching at the top.
- Now the next step for this garbage truck craft is to add the glue for the wheels- you can add the glue as a guide for your child.
- Pop the wheels on and let them dry.
Garbage Truck Books For Kids
Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha is my favorite garbage truck book, and yes, I have read a lot. Mr. Gilly is a hard-working garbage man with one task, to clean up Trashy Town. The text is so melodic I find myself singing while reading ” Dump it in, Smash it down, drive around the trashy town” . It’s not all trashy time for Mr. Gilly though. After a hard day’s work cleaning up Trashy Town he gets into his bubble bath! My son loves that this big garbage collector has a bath just like him. A super sweet and colorful book that explains garbage collection in a nice way.
” I Stink” by Kate and Jim McMullen was the bain of my existence in my Pre-K class. The kids loved this book and I really liked most of it, but there are some gross things in it, like puppy poo, dirty diapers, and kitty litter but we put all those things in the garbage so they are totally appropriate. Just know that they will also get a group of 4 and 5-year-olds giggling and repeating the words for days on end. Overall though, the book is effective, and I own a well-read copy. The garbage truck is sarcastic and rough, and the alphabet of garbage is creative.
“I Am A Garbage Truck” by Ace Landers is my son’s favorite toy right now. He kisses it good night, and it’s the first thing he asks for when he gets up in the morning. The book itself is okay, the story is a little disjointed. When my husband read it to him for the first time he looked over at me in my son’s bed and said, ” Am I reading this the right way? It seems like I should have started from the last page?” my son didn’t care, he loves the illustrations and the way the book is in the shape of a garbage truck. I like that it covers both garbage and recycling!
Batavier says
Ha, great stuff! My son (2+ now) has been nuts about garbage trucks as well. And yes, youtube is great for watching trucks, tractors, cars, fire engines, police cars, etc. etc.
I cannot even grab my laptop for some serious work, without him asking to watch youtube… 🙂
Where's The Aspirin? says
Love it! The kids are always looking for the garbage truck.
farleece says
Thank goodness for Youtube on a rainy day. We’ve watched the The “kitty sitting on Roomba” and any of the laughing baby videos a few dozen times!
Meredith
Tonya says
I must live under a rock! I never thought to look up garbage trucks, etc on YouTube!
Hope you have a great weekend!
Trisha says
I think we’ll do that this weekend. We have both “I Stink” and “I’m Dirty” out from the library now. Thank you for all of the great ideas!
thesixkents says
Ohmyword!
Your site is too fun!
Esp for a homeschoolin’ mom to 2 boys. I’m on it – will go check the rest out and pick out an activity for today!
Susan says
I love your book recommendations, keep them coming!
BranFlakes says
My son loves garbage trucks too! What is it about boys?! Actually, lately he has become obsessed with recycling and there’s a different truck for that.
Darius and Kelly Miknaitis says
My son (19 months) is obsessed with the Garbage Truck too! I look forward to garbage pick up on Mondays because he gets so excited about it. I’m definitely going to have to do this activity with him!
Amy says
Oh my. We’ll have to make this. The arrival of the garbage truck often seems to be the highlight of my boys’ week! (I’m not going to tell them about the youtube videos… even though the Japanese musical garbage truck sounds awfully cool.)
jas says
omg you are so creative I have bookmarked your site so that i can get the ideas from you and use them for my son every now and then he loves what he gets to do and its so much fun thanks a ton
Andrea says
We’re glad you like Trashy Town!
Has your son seen the video? (It’s packaged together with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom on dvd–look for it at your library system.)
Happy Reading,
Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha
Allie says
Andrea ,
Yes, we got it for Christmas and my son ONLY wanted to watch Trashy Town, so I have seen it many many times.
I have suggested the video to a few parents of reluctant readers as a way to “prime the pump” and it’s worked.
Thank you so much for a great book!
Preschool Playbook says
My class loves the book “I Stink.” They think it is so funny. I love the garbage truck,this would be a great transportation day!
Amber says
Trashy Town is one of our favorites! I like using the shapes to make a garbage truck. That may be tomorrow’s activity…
Anna says
My boys (2 & 4) LOVED this!! I posted about it here:
http://www.themeasuredmom.com/preschool-crafts-for-letter-t/
Allison McDonald says
I am so happy to hear that!
stephanie taylor says
I am using this as part of my community helpers lesson today! Super fun & easy even for a non-crafty person like me. Thanks for these ideas.