Trains, Trains, Trains

We have been doing so many train activities over the past week but I haven't had much time to blog so I decided to put five of my favorites in one blog post. 

1. Freight Train

This activity I found at teachpreschool.org. After reading Frieght Train by Donald Crews, we set up this train center on one of our tables. 

I used painters tape to make the track and photo copied a picture of the freght train from the book and taped it to the table. I cut out construction paper rectangles for the train cars and set out a bowl of glass stones that the children put on the bottom of the cars for wheels. Most of the children followed the pattern in the picture when they lined up their train cars. 

2. Shape Trains 

For these trains, I cut lots of shapes out of different colored construction paper. I gave the children glue sticks so that they could create their own trains using the precut shapes. 

We also used painters tape to make a railroad track on the side of our castle and taped the trains onto the track.  

   

3. Cardboard Box Train Cars

 We used shoe boxes and small packing boxes with the top flaps removed for this activity. Each child cut up pieces of construction paper and glued them to their boxes. Our class loves to use scissors so the cutting portion of this activity lasted a long time. We did finally get around to gluing the paper scraps onto the boxes. 

After attaching strings to each box, we tried tying all of the boxes together but the children each wanted their own box. In the end, everyone pulled their own single car train around the room filling it with toys along the way. 

 4. Painter's Tape Train Tracks

We went through a lot of painter's tape this week mainly because of this activity. With the children's help, I put strips of tape on the rug all over the classroom and we drove the toy trains on them. Our track went under chairs, around shelves, and even up the door!

 5. Train Conductor's Hat

I found the directions for making these hats at 4crazykings.blogspot.com. We used construction paper for ours (the children chose their own colors) and we added a band with the child's name across the front. Before cutting and folding the papers, the children colored them with markers. 

Train Buffet

This morning we set up a train buffet for morning snack. Before the children arrived, I used painters tape to make a train track around one of our classroom tables. 

 When it was time to eat, I set out different snacks in bowls around the the track. We told the children that these were stations where they could load their trains. 

 For the trains, I cut the tops off of several egg cartons and cut the bottoms in half lengthwise. When it was time to eat, we gave each child a section of egg carton and showed them how to chug around the track, stop at each station, and load their train with food. 

 The children enjoyed this so much that snack time went on for over half an hour as they returned to the train buffet for seconds and thirds. It was such a big hit that I think we will have to do it again tomorrow!

Train Whistles

These can be made with recycled items that you probably have laying around the house. 

For each whistle, we used:

- 1 toilet paper tube or 1/2 of a paper towel tube 

- 1 small square of wax paper

-1 rubber band

The children decorated their paper towel rolls with markers. When they were finished, I poked a small hole near one end of the roll with scissors. 

We used the rubber band to secure the waxed paper to the same end of the roll that I had poked a hole in. 

We hummed and tooted into the open end of the whistle to make a kazoo sort of noise. We lined up our classroom chairs to make a train and went for a ride while blowing on our new whistles. Just beware, these toys can be loud, especially when a room full of happy children are using them.