DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Easy Train Paper Craft

The "Down By the Station" song is fun to do along with the craft.

This request came in from "Amy" who was looking for a train craft for preschoolers.  I have two daughters so don't get too many train requests myself.  Amy on the other hand has a son...  I wonder if he had one of those little conductor's hats as a baby.  Anyways, I put this little train together for her  son...  I hope he likes it!

CLICK here to see a larger photo of the train, (coloured with markers).  Close the photo window when done viewing to return to this page.

Material:

•  printer,
• a piece of paper,
• some crayons (or paint or markers),
• scissors
• glue
• Optional materials include a cotton ball, photos or magazine clippings of children or toys, and spaghetti or linguini.

Instructions:

• Print out the template of choice.  If using the black and white template, try printing it on coloured construction paper.
• Color (where appropriate) and cut out the template pieces.  Adults may need to help with the cutting.
• Glue the face onto the front of the train.
• Glue the smokestack onto the top.  You can glue a bit of cotton ball to the smockstack as pretend smoke.  If you want to make it a bit more environmentally realistic, you can color the cotton grey or black with marker or paint.
• Glue the wheels onto the bottom of the train.
• You can stop here with Template #1 or print template #2 as well.
• Glue the car and caboose from template #2 onto the back of the train.  Explain that the caboose of the train is always the last (the caboose is on the top of the page on template 2.  The car is on the bottom).
• You can cut out magazine pictures of toys or children, a picture from a coloring book, or a small photo of the child and glue them into the car or onto the back of the caboose.
• Really young kids may have an easier time attaching the cars, cotton balls, etc.  If they glue everything to a background piece of paper (they also have the opportunity to color in a sky, grass, clouds etc.  This way).   This also allows you to use uncooked pieces of spaghetti or linguini, glued underneath of the train's wheels, to represent train tracks.

Note from a viewer:
"I just printed the easy train craft, and had some feedback to make the activity more educationally accurate. (I used to teach at the Virginia Museum of Transportation, where our primary focus was on teaching kids about trains.) The caboose does not always have to be the last car, though this is common.  Today, you will see very few cabooses in operation.  The car on template 2 is actually at tender for the steam engine in template one, and should therefore only be filled with coal.  This is not a freight car.  Loved the templates and plan on using them this week, but thought this might help."
Thanks to Stacy for sharing this with us!
 

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Template 1     (color)   or   (B&W)

Template 2     (color)   or   (B&W)

Print friendly version of these instructions