Top 10 Fun Train Activities For Preschoolers

Image: Shutterstock

The unique choo-choo sound of the train has captured preschoolers’ imaginations all over the world. Be it the smoke puffing old engines, or the high-speed modern trains, watching a train run, or a train ride is on the top of the favorite list of kids.

Children get glued to the television or smart phone watching cartoons about trains. If your little one is one among them, why not teach her to do some amazing train crafts. As always, MomJunction is here with a list of ten train activities for preschoolers.

Top 10 Fun Train Activities For Preschoolers

1. Vegetable Train Craft:

Image: Shutterstock

You Will Need:

• 4 Cucumbers
• 4 Some long tomatoes
• 4 Some round tomatoes
• 4 Carrots
• A knife

How To:

1. Place one long cucumber horizontally on the table. This will be the base of train’s engine.

2. Use a knife and cut another cucumber in half and place it vertically on the top rear side of the horizontally placed cucumber as the engine of the train. Cut two pieces of the vertically placed vegetable as its windows.

3. Cut a small vertical slice out of a cucumber and place it on the top of the engine with its flat end at the bottom.

4. Use a knife and cut one long and one short piece out of the carrot and place both the pieces vertically in front of the vertically placed cucumber completing the engine of the train.

5. Cut other cucumbers in half, remove the soft inner material out of them with the help of a knife and place them in a line behind the engine as wagons. Make sure that the oval surfaces of the wagons are in contact with the table and open vacate surfaces face the sky.

6. Keep small round tomatoes in between the wagons and engine to join them.

7. Place four long red tomatoes vertically in the vacant wagon next to the engine.

8. Cut several round slices and vertical pieces out of the carrots.

9. Place four round carrot pieces at two bottom sides of the engine and each wagon, to make wheels. Two slices need to be there on either side of the cucumber as wheels.

10. Place the vertical slices of carrots horizontally in the vacant compartments and your vegetable train is ready.

2. Flower Petals Train Craft:

Image: IStock

You Will Need:

• Lots of flower petals of any color
• White drawing sheet
• Glue

How To:

1. Arrange the flower petals and create a vertical rectangular design, with two of the petals in its middle, on a white drawing paper. The rectangular structure forms the engine of the train. Glue the arranged flower parts on the sheet.

2. Organize flower petals in a row from the bottom line of the engine and paste them.

3. Arrange the flower petals and make a square above the line creating the wagon of the train.

4. Create a big round structure below the engine as its wheel.

5. Create two small petal circles below the wagon as wheels and develop a connector as you see in the image. Glue all the arranged flower elements and complete the flower petal train craft.

3. Tea Pot And Cups Train Craft:

Image: Shutterstock

You Will Need:

• A plastic teapot
• One paper cup
• A plastic or paper mug
• One cupcake
• Several pieces of strings
• Glue
• Lots of round potato wafers or rings

How To:

1. Help your preschooler place a tall plastic teapot in the front and keep a paper cup, plastic mug, and cupcake in a row behind the teapot. The teapot represents the engine of the train and the cup, mug, and cake, represent the wagons of the train.

2. Use glue and the strings to connect the teapot to the cup, cup to the mug, and mug to the cupcake.

3. Paste the potato ring waters at the opposite bottom sides of the teapot, cup, mug, and cake as the wheels of the train.

4. Glue two wheels on each side.

4. Felt Train Craft:

Image: IStock

You Will Need:

• Red, yellow, green, white, and black, fabrics
• Pencil
• Red, black, yellow, green, white, and black, thread
• Needle
• Scissors

How To:

1. Provide your preschooler a sheet of red fabric, fold it half and help her to draw an image of a train wagon on the upper part of the folded fabric by using a pencil. Refer to the picture above.

2. Use the scissors and cut the train’s picture out so that you have two identical red train fabric pictures. Place the two train shaped red clothes over each other and stitch them using red thread.

3. Cut a rectangular piece of the white fabric and sew it at the upper end of the train creating its window.

4. Cut two identical oval shapes out of green and yellow fabric each. Place two oval shaped yellow cloth pieces on each other and sew them using yellow thread. Keep two oval shaped green cloth pieces on each other and stitch them using the green thread.

5. Stitch the green oval felt over the top end of the train.

6. Cut a vertical piece out of the green fabric and stitch it on the front end of the train. Sew the oval yellow felt on the top of the green fabric to complete the train’s engine.

7. Now, cut two big circles out of the black fabric and two smaller circles out of the white fabric.

8. Place small white felt circles on the dark circles with their center coinciding and stitch them by using white thread and create the wheels of the train. Stitch the wheels at the bottom end of the train.

5. Train Bookmark Craft:

Image: Shutterstock

You Will Need:

• A tough smooth white card paper
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Red sketch pen

How To:

1. Provide your child a glossy yet stiff white card paper and help her cut a long, wide strip out of it.

2. Use a pencil and help your preschooler draw an image of a train on the white paper strip. Outline the train’s engine, wagons, windows, and the trail track on the strip.

3. Color the drawn train except for the area of windows with the help of a red sketch pen and your train bookmark is ready.

6. Clay And Buttons Train Craft:

Image: IStock

You Will Need:

• Colorful clay, such as brown, black, green, pink, yellow, red and blue
• Four to five small plastic sticks
• Lots of big buttons

How To:

1. Provide your child clay of various colors and help her shape wide long layers of clay such that one layer is two centimeters in breadth. Develop two or three layers of green, brown, yellow, pink, and black earth.

2. Place three differently colored clay layers on one another horizontally and two green clay layers vertically behind the horizontal layers as you see in the image and create the engine of the train. Place a brown layer above the two vertical green clay sheets.

3. Now, make a cylindrical shape out of the black earth as the chimney of the train engine and place it vertically in the front part of the engine.

4. Attach four buttons on opposite sides of the engine as its wheels.

5. Place green and yellow earth sheet horizontally behind the engine developing the wagons of the train.

6. Connect the motor and all wagons with the help of plastic sticks.

7. Attach buttons at the bottom of the wagons such that a wagon balances on two pairs of button wheels.

7. Ginger Bread And Cookies Train Craft:

Image: Shutterstock

You Will Need:

Large slices of gingerbread
White cream cone
Kitchen knife
Glue

How To:

1. Provide your preschooler many slices of gingerbread and white cream cone and guide her to draw two identical images of a train engine, wagons, wheels, and other parts of the train on them by using the cream cone.

2. Outline the train’s engine with chimney, boiler, and wheels by using the cream cone on two slices of the bread and cut them out by using a kitchen knife. Similarly, draw two similar images of wagons with wheels on two different bread pieces and cut them out. Create three wagon i.e. six pieces of gingerbread.

3. Place the engine shaped bread slices next to each other vertically with some gap in the middle and join them with a horizontally placed slice of gingerbread with the help of glue. Similarly, attach two similar wagon shaped bread pieces so that you have vacant wagons.

4. Cut broad, thick rings out of other gingerbread slices and use them to adhere to the engine to wagon and wagons to one another. Join parts of the train with the help of glue.

5. Cut narrow strips of the bread and fill the empty wagons with them.

8. Wooden Blocks Train:

Image: IStock

You Will Need:

• Six cylindrical wood pieces of equal sizes
• Three rectangular wood pieces
• One square wood piece
• Thick threads
• Glue
• Yellow, pink, and blue food colors
• A paint brush

How To:

1. Use yellow food color and paint brush and color all six cylindrical wooden blocks yellow. Similarly, paint all three rectangular wooden blocks pink and a square wooden box blue.

2. Place two cylindrical wood pieces next to each other such that their curved sides come in contact with each other forming the wheels of the train’s engine. You can join them by using glue.

3. Place one rectangular wood piece horizontally on two adjacently placed cylindrical wheels and balance it properly making the body of the engine. Keep the square wood piece on the rectangular base as the chimney of the train’s engine.

4. Similarly, place other two cylindrical wooden blocks next to each other forming the wheels of the wagons, join them, and keep rectangular wooden block horizontally on the wheels to complete the wagon structure. Develop two wagons and place both of them at read side of the train’s engine in a row.

5. Join the rectangular bases of the engine and wagons by using thick threads and glue and your wooden blocks train is ready.

9. Lego Blocks Train Craft:

Image: IStock

You Will Need:

• Lots of small and long Lego blocks of various colors
• Four large Lego pieces with hooks for making the base of train engine and wagons
• Eight pairs of wheels with axles
• One small triangular Lego piece
• One toy driver’s cabin with toy driver
• Toy chimney

How To:

1. Place two pairs of wheels parallel to each other with some gap in between them. Place one large Lego piece on them such that it forms the base of the engine.

2. Similarly, create three more wheel based Lego block bottoms for the wagons of the Lego train.

3. Fix a toy driver cabin piece on the engine’s bottom and place a yellow Lego block on it enclosing it. Add two small pieces in the front of the cabin and fix the toy chimney on them. Set a triangular Lego piece in the front and the train engine is complete.

Now, add three layers of small and long Lego pieces on the base part of the wagon as you see in the image. Similarly, create three such wagons, arrange them in a row behind the engine, and join their hooks completing your Lego train.

10. Train’s Mural Wall Painting:

Image: IStock

You Will Need:

• A plain white wall
• Black marker or pencil
• Food colors: red, blue, green, black, gray, yellow, and white
• Small bowls
• Water

How To:

1. Guide your preschooler to draw an image of a train on a plain, white wall by using a black marker. Outline the train’s engine, chimney, three wagons, and two wheels for each carriage and engine.

2. Add each food color in a separate bowl and mix it will some water.

3. Paint the train’s image using various food colors and a paint brush. Paint the wheels black and gray and engine’s body blue and its base and top red. Paint the first wagon red, second one green, and last yellow and the train’s mural wall painting is complete.

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Author

Manjiri Kochrekar

Manjiri is a freelance writer with experience in writing on a wide range of topics, including travel, education, yoga, and children’s activities, fun and learning. She is passionate about creative writing and loves to put her thoughts into words.

Read full bio of Manjiri Kochrekar