I’ve been using my vehicle themed adapted books paired with a variety of vehicle themed activities to work on all sorts of language skills with my students.  This week I’m using the book “What Color is the Vehicle?” to work on color concepts while also learning common vehicle vocabulary terms.  I paired this book with a new Vehicle bingo game I just created and it was a success for my students.         

“What Color is the Vehicle?” targets 12 color concepts and the student has to match the correct color circle piece to the color of the vehicle on that page.  I have my students help me point to the word boxes as we read each page.  For the first page we read, “What color is the dump truck?”  Then we continue to the bottom of the page and read, “The dump truck is….”  I wait for the student to say and/or find the blue circle and place it in the empty box along the bottom of the page.  I model both the vehicle vocabulary term and the color concepts while reading this book.  I tried to use common vehicle concepts for this book but some still might be new vocabulary terms for our students.  The more modeling and practice with these concepts the better.    

For some of my student, I give them a choice of 2-3 colors to select from and place on the page.  If you need to you can even fold the color pieces page behind the book if they are too distracting for students and only present 2-3 colors at a time.  Just change the prompting depending on your student’s skill level and ability to attend to the book.  For example, “What color is the helicopter?”  “Is it purple or orange?”  Hopefully reducing the visual field to 2 or 3 colors helps the student find the correct color and attach it on the book.  “The helicopter is orange.” 

These books are fun for working on those important color concepts while also modeling common vehicle vocabulary concepts.  For my students with AAC devices we have been working on finding the color concepts and the vehicle on their device.  For example “pink car”.  You can also just use it to navigate to the vehicle page and work with your student on finding the correct vehicle to match the vehicle in the book.  This gets the student familiar with all the different vehicles concepts on their device.  If you are working on color concepts have your student find the color concept on their device to pair with the color of the vehicle in the book.  Lots of different ways to include and use those AAC devices while reading this book.   

I love to see my students feel successful while reading this book!

Since we have been working on learning the names of different vehicles I decided to make a Vehicle Themed Bingo Game to use with my students.  I created 2 different level Bingo games and each level has 6 different game boards.  Vehicle Bingo Level 1 targets 20 different common vehicles.  There are 16 vehicles on each board meaning not all the vehicle are on each board.  Level 2 targets those same 20 vehicles from Level 1 but then I added an additional 10 vehicles for a total of 30 different vehicles.  Each of the Level 2 vehicles boards will now have 24 vehicles and include a free space on it.  I like to have all the boards slightly different with not all the same vehicles to make it more interesting for the students and they really have to look to see if the vehicle is on their board or not.

Each calling card has a picture of the vehicle and the name of the vehicle on it.  You can change up the way you play depending the level of your students.  Sometimes I just show the students the card with the vehicle picture and say the name of the vehicle.  The student need to look at their board and see if they have that vehicle.  Then they place a chip/token on the matching vehicle.  I like to use magnetic chips with a magnetic wand while playing the game.  It makes clean up easier and more fun! 

When using the Level 1 boards I often make my students fill their boards to win.  Since the boards are different they won’t all finish at the same time.  That way we can model all of those vehicle concepts and get more practice. 

To make it more challenging you can use the calling cards without the visual support.  Just say the name of the vehicle and see if the student can find that vehicle on their board.  If they need help then I show them the card.  The students can also take turns being the caller.  The student can pick a card and see if they can tell their peers what vehicle is on the card. 

Your students with AAC devices can find the vehicle on their device and say it to their friends.  They can also practice saying “my turn” to indicate their turn in the game.    

The set of adapted books includes “What Vehicle Do You See?”, “What Color is the Vehicle?”, and “How Many Vehicles Do You See?”.  You can find them on TPT with the link – Vehicle Adapted Book Series

If you are interested in the Free Vehicle Themed Bingo Games click the link – Vehicle Themed Bingo Games

Have Fun!