Simple Rainbow Train Craft for Kids

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This week we are exploring our favorite books and crafts related to vehicles. One of our favorite books is Freight Train by Donald Crews. Since my kids love trains we had a lot of fun with this simple activity.

Last week after reading Freight Train we decided to make our own rainbow trains and do some painting as we created them too!

Before we started building our trains we sang one of our favorite rainbow songs and talked about the colors we saw in the book. Then we grabbed our supplies and started creating!

Materials needed: 

rainbow colored cardstock rectangles, large easel paper, an engine cut out of black paper (we used this coloring page as our template and traced it onto black paper), glue, a black marker, washable paint, and a thick marker

Directions:

Before we started creating I cut out several rectangles in different colors and I also cut out an engine for each child.

Next, I gave each kid a set of rainbow colored rectangles, an engine, and a piece of easel paper with a railroad track drawn on it.

We sang the rainbow song and the kids tried to put their trains in rainbow colored order with the engine in the front of their train. 

Once they liked how their train looked then they glued the train down onto the easel paper.

Although we discussed the rainbow colors and the order colors go in, it was not my expectation for this activity for every kid to make a rainbow train. I wanted them exploring the colors, talking about the colors, and learning to identify the colors in the rainbow. The kids were welcome to build their train into a rainbow train as well, but I didn't tell them that they had to. 

Once the kids glued their trains in place them I gave each of them a plate of paint (using their favorite color) and I gave them a fat marker. They used the end of the fat marker to paint wheels onto the train by dipping the marker in the paint and printing with it.

While the train crafts dried we had fun playing in our playroom pretending to be trains and walking around in a big line.

Do you have a child that loves trains?

You may also want to check out our Donald Crews Freight Train playdate activities post that we shared over at Virtual Book Club for Kids.

What other train themed activities and crafts have you tried with your kids?