Materials:

• Medium-size boxes (one for each child, large enough for a child to sit in)
• Paint
• Paintbrushes and sponges
• Colored paper
• Markers
• Crepe paper streamers
• Chart paper

Objective. Foster cooperative and dramatic play outdoors by challenging children to create a train from cardboard boxes.

In Advance. Collect pictures of trains and books about trains to share with children.

Activity

• During group time, read a story about trains and share some of the pictures you've collected. Ask children if they have ever been on a train. What do they remember about the experience? Encourage them to think of words that describe a train. What do trains carry? What are some different kinds of trains? Record children's comments on chart paper.
• Explain to children that they are going to be making a train out of cardboard boxes. Provide a variety of paint colors and sponges for children to use to apply paint and create interesting textures.
• Take the painted boxes to your outdoor space and invite children to use them to make a train (or trains). Let their play develop and observe how the children use this opportunity to play together and how they incorporate the outdoor environment into their play. (Some children may even use the boxes to invent a whole new experience.)
• As a follow-up, ask children to think of places they would like to travel to on the train. What would they like to take with them on the trip? Together, gather related props, such as backpacks, purses, dolls, and dress-up clothes to enhance their travel adventure. Provide paper so children can make tickets, signs, and so on for the train.

For younger children. Invite children to decorate individual cardboard boxes outdoors. Later, they might want to join them as a car, train, or any other object of their choosing.

For older children. Print numerals on the sides of the "box cars." Challenge children to fill "car number 3 with twigs," "car number 5 with leaves," and so on.

Spin Off Activity. Read Write lyrics to the song "Down by the Station" on chart paper. Explain to children that a puffer belly is a funny name for a steam engine.

 

Down by the station

Early in the morning.

See the little puffer bellies

All in a row.

Hear the stationmaster

Blow the engine's whistle.

Puff, puff, chug, chug,

Off we go.

Tip: You may want to ask families to assist you in collecting boxes for children to use in this activity.

Books

Freight Train by Donald Crews

The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

Stop, Train, Stop! A Thomas the Tank Engine Story  by Wilbert Vere Awdry