18 Months: Trains

We recently went and met Thomas the Tank Engine and thought it would be a good idea to take a week to explore trains!

Books
Maisy's Train by Lucy Cousins
Fast Train, Slow Train (Thomas & Friends)
Trains by Colleen Carroll (How Artists See Jr.)
The Little Train by Lois Lenski
Freight Train by Donald Crews
Inside Freight Train by Donald Crews
There Berenstain Bears All Aboard! by Jan & Mike Berenstain
The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
Thomas the Tank Engine Big Lift-and-Look Book by Rev. W. Awdry

Activities

I created this foam shape train puzzle on the computer and cut the shapes out of craft foam. Little Cutie really enjoyed doing this puzzle. Above is a picture of where she placed everything. You can print a copy of the puzzle here.

(I got the pieces for this Tot Book from 1+1+1=1. We opted not to use the Thomas and Friends part.) This was the first time we used a Tot Book and I was interested to see how it would go since Little Cutie is not much of a sit down and do something kind of kiddo. She wasn't really interested in the "How Many?" pieces at all. She did enjoy coloring the trains...just a few scribbles on each page though (more interested in the crayons themselves than coloring). We took the shapes out and put them in our mini pocket chart ($1 at the One Spot in Target!) and talked about what each shape was; she liked moving them around to different places on the pocket chart.

(I got this printable from Royal Baloo.) This was our first time using a dot marker, and really, it was just a bingo marker from the dollar store. Little Cutie wanted to move the dot marker around like a regular marker.

We don't own any toy trains, so we headed to our local library. They have a play table covered with tracks and trains. Little Cutie always loves playing with the trains. We put together a simple circular track and she drove the trains around it.

Real Train Ride
Sorry, no picture, but we had the opportunity to ride on a real train. The engine looked like Thomas the Tank Engine. The conductor even came and punched our tickets (it reminded me of a scene from The Polar Express). Little Cutie seemed to enjoy herself.

Follow Lauren at Our Little Ducklings's board Transportation on Pinterest.