Build a Truck
Putting steps in order: build a truck from its wheels up, and bin day from start to finish.
How it plays
Pictures of a job, mixed up. Ruby Roo asks “What comes first?” and your child puts the pictures in order: a truck built from its wheels up, and bin day from the bin going out to the truck tipping it. Three steps, then four. At the end Ruby Roo reads the whole thing back, from the start. A picture in the wrong place just goes back to try again.
What it's for
Putting steps in order: build a truck from its wheels up, and bin day from start to finish. There is no score to lose and no way to fail: a wrong move is met with a gentle nudge, and a level ends when it's done.
Away from the screen: Bin day, in order
About two minutes, with things most homes have.
- Next bin night, take the bins out together.
- In the morning, look out for the truck.
- Back inside, your child tells you what happened, in order: first, next, last.
- Draw it in three boxes on a piece of paper.
Three questions to ask while they play
- What do you need first, the wheels or the logs?
- What happens after the bin goes out to the kerb?
- What would happen if you put the load on before the wheels?
Play together
Things to say or ask
- First the wheels. What next?
- Tell me the story of the truck, from the start.
Taking turns on one device: Take turns choosing the next picture.
If they find it hard
Lay the three pictures out with them and say each one out loud before they choose. Start with “first” and “last”; the middle is easy once those are in.
What it practises
- Putting a story in order. Retelling a story from its pictures: what happened first, next and last.
AC9EFLE03 (English, Foundation); AC9EFLE05 (English, Foundation); AC9EFLY05 (English, Foundation)
The codes are from the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 (for children from birth to five) and the Australian Curriculum v9 (Foundation to Year 2). Each links to the official wording. Every skill, and the games for it.
What it costs, and what we collect
Nothing, and nothing. There is no account, no advertising and no tracking of any kind. Which games have been played is remembered on your own device and is never sent anywhere. The full version is here, and it's short.
Where it lives
Build a Truck is part of Machines & Vehicles. It works on a phone, a tablet or a classroom screen, and once it's been opened it keeps working with no signal at all.
Updated