National Simultaneous Storytime is run by the Australian Library and Information Association to encourage children to read the same book simultaneously in libraries, early learning services, schools, and homes across Australia. The event will be held on 21 May 2025, with this year’s book being “The Truck Cat” written by Deborah Frenkel and illustrated by Danny Snell.
At the heart of this book is an exploration of relationships and identity, following Yacoub and his cat, Tinka, as they transport goods across the country in a big truck. It’s a beautiful book, rich with STEM learning opportunities! Read on for early STEM ideas about food, smells, and engineering inspired by “The Truck Cat”.
Don’t forget to share your National Simultaneous Storytime explorations with us! Join Little Scientists’ Facebook group “Early STEM Educators Network” to exchange STEM ideas with educators all over Australia.
Explore food from paddock to plate
In this story, Yacoub’s truck carries different items such as apples, pears, and eggs. Kick off your STEM exploration by asking the children: Why are these items in the truck? Where will the truck take them? This could lead to an exploration of the food supply chain. Here are a few STEM activity ideas:
🏪 Prompt the children to think about where they get your food from, such as local markets, grocery stores, supermarkets, butchers, fishmongers, and bakeries. You could take the children on excursions to these places and speak to local merchants about where they get their supplies.
♻️ Repurpose food that would otherwise go to waste, like transforming potato peelings into home-baked crackers. This article is full of age-appropriate ideas for educators to explore sustainability issues in the food production chain with children.
🍅 Support the children to nurture a garden to explore how food goes from paddock to plate:
- Explore how fruits and vegetables are grown, from market gardens in your community to larger farms that grow crops at scale. You can show pictures of these or take excursions.
- Find out which foods are farmed near your setting. Then, ask the children which fruit or vegetables you could plant.
- Support the children to plant fruits and vegetables in your outdoor area. Ask the children what the plants will need to grow, such as sunlight and water.
🌱 Watch a gardening demonstration in our STEM Hour recording: “Cultivating Kitchens Gardens in ECEC”. Our expert guest Kate Beckwith, from the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, explains the fundamentals of working with young children to establish and sustain a kitchen garden, including edible plants to get you started.
Practise positional language
“Here, there, over, under” is a repetitive refrain in this book. This is an example of positional language, which supports children’s spatial awareness — an important part of early mathematical thinking. Here are some ideas to extend children’s understanding of positional language:
🛝 Support the children to build an obstacle course out of everyday materials, such as ropes, towels, newspapers, and boxes. Have the children move through the course by stepping, crawling, jumping, and climbing. Ask them to use position words to describe their movements, like “I’m stepping over the box.” This resource from the Northern Territory Department of Education contains more spatial thinking activities.
📚 Read other books that focus on positional language, like “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”. You can find more recommended books on Pocket of Preschool and Growing Book by Book.
🧸 Play a modified Peek-a-Boo with babies and toddlers by using a box to hide a toy and covering it with a blanket. Tell the children that the toy is under, on top of, or next to the box and invite them to find the toy.
🫣 For older children, hide a toy somewhere in your room and give clues to find it using positional language. For example: “The toy is next to the musical instruments.” Over time, you can make the descriptions more abstract, such as “The toy is under something that is green with black spots.” You can also allow the children to take over the hiding and give their own positional instructions.
Engineer a truck
In the book, Tinka runs onto the road but escapes safely. Ask the children how they think Tinka stayed safe from the traffic. What do the illustrations in the book show? Develop the children’s engineering skills with this simple activity about how to keep Tinka safe.
Materials:
🐈 Small animal figurine.
📦 Loose parts or construction materials, like Lego and tape.
Instructions:
- Provide a figurine that can represent Tinka.
- Encourage the children to create trucks using loose parts or construction materials like Lego and try to roll over the figurine.
- Ask the children: How can we change the truck to ensure that Tinka is safe? Document their ideas and encourage them to experiment.
Explore the sense of smell
Yacoub drives from town to town, but “one day he smelled something familiar” and follows the aroma. Engage in an exploration of the human body by asking the children about things they have smelt before. What is their favourite smell? What smells don’t they like? Below are more ideas to explore the sense of smell.
🍊 Encourage the children to smell a whole orange. Try this first at a distance, then up close to their nose. Cut the orange in half and repeat the experience. What difference in smell do they notice? Does the orange smell stronger when cut in half?
📝 Support the children to make a list of different smells and categorise or sort them. For example, you can categorise by how “delicious” or strong a smell is. Try to find as many ways as possible to describe the smells.
👃Do a blind test to see what smells the children can identify, such as lemon juice, mashed banana, minced garlic, herbs, toothpaste, vinegar, dishwashing detergent, and spices. Place a small amount of the smelly item on a piece of cotton wool inside a small cup and have the children guess the smells without looking. Be mindful of allergies and sensitivities when choosing the items.
🥘 Explore how cooking affects the smell of foods using these instructions:
- Source uncooked food items like unpopped popcorn, garlic, onion, bread, sugar water, eggs, vinegar, cabbage, fish, and raw bacon. Choose items that can be cooked using a toaster or electric frypan.
- Ask children to smell the items and describe them. Do they smell strong? Is there no smell?
- Cook the food and discuss any differences the children notice. Do the smells change? What about when they’re cooked for longer?
Develop your STEM skills with pedagogy-based STEM PD:
- Browse our in-person STEM workshops.
- Browse our online STEM workshops.
- Browse our online STEM Hours.
- Book an in-service workshop for your team.
- Book a STEM Family Workshop for your families.
