Kids love trains. The huffing and puffing of the smokey engine, the conductor and the shiny spinning wheels is a captivating sight to most kids. If you're a parent or teacher and want a few train-themed activities and games to do with your kids, a few ideas hone math and English skills, boost participation and keep your kids busy.
Candy Train
A candy train is a great activity for parents or teachers to do with kids. Use the candy train in preparation for Christmas or as an everyday activity that incorporates a child's favorite sweets: candy. Use a hot glue gun and candy like peppermint, Life Savers, gum, Hershey's Kisses and rectangular caramel-like candy to make a delicious locomotive your kids can use as an ornament or keep for a tasty treat.
Color Tracks
Color Tracks is a railroad/trains themed board game for two or more players. Players take turns spinning the spinner and drawing a skill card. Each skill card has a question or incomplete sentence that needs to be answered correctly. When a player answers the skill cards correctly, she moves the number of spaces on the spinner. If a "color tracks" card is pulled, the player must move to the corresponding color on the board, no matter if it means moving forward or back.The first player to the RR crossing sign wins. Adobe Acrobat is needed to view and print this file.
Train Number Rhyme
Train Number Rhyme is an activity for preschool- and kindergarten-aged children. The Rhyme game uses handcrafted train necklaces a a rhyme song to hone children's number recognition skills. Print, cut and laminate the train-shaped cards. Hole punch each card and loop a string of yarn around them to make a necklace. Pass out the cards to your kids and make sure each child knows the number on their train necklace. Start the sing-song rhyme and encourage the children to stand up and do the action stated in the rhyme when they hear their train necklace number called.
Train Engineer Hat
Kids love to create, and the train engineer hat is one activity for kids to make their very own customized train engineer hat, using crayons, scissors, some construction paper and a stapler. Print out a train engineer hat cut-out on heavy weight paper. Let the kids color and cut out the hat. Fold the train engineer hat along the dotted line, then staple each hat.
