Trains, Trains, Trains!

Last month we studied transportation including all sorts of different ways to get around! The kids and I took this opportunity to ride a train and I am just getting around to writing about it. This is a CRAZY time of year, but I wanted to make sure to log our memories including this train ride. It was the week before Thanksgiving, so the trains were PACKED with travelers, but we still had a wonderful time!

We took the Amtrak train from Hanford, CA to Fresno, CA and back again. The ride was about 40 minutes there and 40 minutes home.

I, of course, was armed with books about trains (mainly Thomas the Train), snacks and even train movies to watch while we travelled. Most of the time we looked out the window and I tried to engage the kids in discussion on how the train runs. We talked about the tracks, the engineer, the conductor, and even the snack car.

I think Hope said, "Choo! Choo!" every time she heard the whistle of the train. It was so cute!

The journey got a little bit long near the end, but I'm so glad we did it! Mother Goose Time of course had an amazing lesson planned for trains and the kids learned so much and thoroughly enjoyed it.

They made their own little trains out of noodles and string. They loved pretending with these trains! It was a great little "Make and Play" project.

We used our math manipulatives to play a game called "Roll to a Bridge." The kids tossed the pocket cube (most amazing resource EVER! The kids love this little cube!). and roll the dice to see how far to move their plane, bus, train or boat.

Here is a photo of the amazing pocket cube! The number pictures can be taken out and replaced with other pictures including: letter pictures, movement pictures, song pictures, transportation pictures, ect. We use this nearly every day! Such a useful little tool...

The kids also worked on their letter recognition while using triangles to help shape a train engine.  We used the pocket cube in this activity too! I simply switched out the transportation pictures for letter pictures. They loved this activity! For Jonathan, I had him tell me whether the letter was upper case or lower case, and also the sound of the letter he rolled.

We had so much fun learning about trains! We are so incredibly blessed to be able to homeschool this year. I am beyond grateful to my husband for working so hard in order for me to stay home with my kiddos. And I am SO thankful to Mother Goose Time for allowing me to share my honest thoughts and opinions on the activities in exchange for the curriculum. Thank you Mother Goose Time!