Monday, November 30, 2015

Santa Express Geometric Christmas Train

There are so many great stories about trains for children! A very special story for the holiday season is the classic "The Polar Express" by Chris Van Allsburg's. This FREE fun product incorporates 5 geometric shapes into the building of a train engine,
plus a creative literacy activity.
 
 
 There are 3 complete train engine choices; 1 has red and green colors, 1 is grayscale colored, and the last is black and white. The train can be made as a stand-alone, but that is better printed on heavy paper. It can also be made by gluing the pieces down on another piece of paper.

This project is excellent practice for the fine motor skills of cutting and gluing. It is a good idea to give each child a baggie to hold their cut pieces until they have glued them all.

Introduce or review the five shapes; circle, square, triangle, rectangle, and hexagon. Decide if posting the picture of the finished Key that is included, so the children may use it for reference. When doing the black and white or grayscale engines, the children can color or decorate them when finished.

This activity can also be used in a center, but it is better if the pieces are laminated first. Some of the pieces are small so a baggie helps to keep any from getting lost.
 
The literacy activity has a black and white train paper with lines for writing and reading their creative stories. There is a cover sheet to make these stories into a class share book the students can read and reread again and again.
 
 The Geometric Train can be used for other stories about trains.

Some examples are:
1. Smokey by Bill Peet
2. Crack in the Track (Thomas the Tank Engine Story)
3. Little Train by Lois Lenski
4. The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper
5. Steam, Smoke, and Steel: Back in Time with Trains by Patrick O’Brien
6. Big Book of Trains by DK Publishing
7. The Goodnight Train by June Sobel
8. The Potty Train by David Hochman
9. Dinosaur Train by John Steven Gurney
10. Freight Train by Donald Crews
 
I have another train product that can also be a Christmas train activity,
but can be used at other times of the year too.
Christmas Train Do Together Parent/Child Homework Activity
 
There are many other geometric activities and money saving geometric bundles in my store.
Geometric Activities
Also See:
Christmas Activities
Puzzles & Games
Colors & Shapes
Free Activities

Enjoy this holiday season!

10 comments:

  1. I love your hands-on geometry activities for little ones, Christine! Thanks for sharing!
    Linda at Primary Inspiration

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  2. What great projects to get little ones learning! Thanks and will definitely share.

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  3. This will be a great project for my little ones! They LOVE trains!

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  4. We study the Polar Express next year (we have a 2 year rolling programme) so I can't wait to use your trains unit with my little friends then! Thanks so much for taking the time to link up with us- wishing you a fantastic festive season Xx

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    1. So excited for your little ones next year! Happy Holidays to you too!
      Christine Maxwell Hand to Heart

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  5. Thank you for the freebie! We will be watching Polar Express this week, so this will be a fun and learning activity with my 5 yr old. I am glad to see you over at the link party. Thank you for sharing at #Bloggerspotlight, hope to see you again! Pinned!

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    Replies
    1. You are so very welcome and how fun for your son! Thank you so much for pinning too!
      Christine Maxwell Hand to Heart

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