Runaway Cone: Ideas and activities

Our friends at PlayTalkRead have come up with some great crafting activities to help you get the most out of Runaway Cone by Morag Hood, which is in the Bookbug Explorer Bag.

Visit the Bookbug Explorer Bag homepage

Make a clue box to introduce the story

You will need:

• A shoe box
• An egg box
• Some coloured pens

Extras if you have them:

• A yellow digger
• A plastic bottle with a picture of Gary the traffic cone
• a plastic bottle with a picture of Gary the traffic cone

Instructions

• Use a shoe box with six traffic cone props (and a yellow digger, a red helicopter, a plastic bottle with a picture of Gary the traffic cone inside if you have them)
• Make the traffic cones from a cardboard eggbox and use paint pens to colour them orange and white
• The cones can also be playful finger puppets to help children count how many traffic cones are in the story and to spot when one is missing

Use props to keep the book interesting

• While reading the story, encourage the children to join in with the props you have chosen
• Open the bottle to reveal the picture of Gary the missing traffic cone. This will help to involve the children in the search for Gary as you read through the next few pages of the story – act out looking high and low and then take to the skies to continue the search

PlayTalkRead is the national programme and roadshow campaign for the Scottish Government’s Parent Club(this link will open in a new window) initiative. It showcases, demonstrates and delivers key messages to support parents and families with young children to play, talk and read together more from birth. Our team travels around Scotland to provide storytelling and play activity sessions for children to enjoy along with their parents or caregivers.

For more inspiration and ideas, or to find out where our vehicles are travelling to next, you can follow us on X @playtalkread(this link will open in a new window). PlayTalkRead is a project delivered by Smart Play Network(this link will open in a new window), a charitable organisation supporting play opportunities in Scotland.