Tip Tip Dig Dig
This brightly-colored book is packed with action—digger trucks dig dig dig, cement mixers mix mix mix, and cranes lift lift lift. Each one of these colorful pieces of moving machinery has a set of friendly-looking eyes that puts a friendly face on all of this dirty work. All of the action (bulldozing, road rolling, etc.) takes place in the present tense until near the end, when it shifts to past tense—We dug. We mixed. We lifted. We tipped. We pushed. The result of all of this hard work displays as a double-spread of an adventure playground with a sandbox, a see-saw, and swinging tires, with the friendly-eyed heavy equipment vehicles driving away in the background. A fun, colorful, and action-filled book that children will want to read again and again!
Pennsylvania Center for the Book Awards
Book Activities & Discussion Ideas
In a sandbox—or just an area that has some soft dirt that’s safe for children to play in with their hands—have children imitate the actions of some of the heavy construction vehicles in this book. Ask them if they remember the words (verbs) that were used to describe those actions—"dig," "push," "lift," and so on. (If they don’t, do the action yourself, then say the word that describes it—"dig," "roll," etc.)
If you have some toy versions of some of these vehicles, great—if not, you can improvise by using some spoons or small plastic buckets to dig, a thick piece of cardboard (or even just hands) to push the sand or dirt, or a rolling pin or plastic bottle filled with water and sealed to "roll" and flatten the dirt.
If there’s a construction site near you, take the children to a safe location near it and see if they are able to point out any of the heavy construction vehicles in this book. If they find some, ask them if they remember the action words that were used in the book to describe the work that these vehicles do (e.g., the dump truck "tips," the crane "lifts," etc.) If there isn’t a construction site close to you, consider playing a video made for children that shows construction work being done. These are usually quite easy to find. There have been some made about building bridges, making tunnels, building roads, etc.