What a positive message this story carries about how hard work and how practice pays off.  What will happen to the little blue engine if nobody helps her get up and over the mountain?

Materials

•             Simple train cars + engine for name game
•             Stuffed animals, especially a toy clown if you have one.

Vocabulary

•             Shiny (something that sparkles in the sun)
•             Engine (The first car of the train that has the motor to pull)

Before reading the Story

            Tell the children that today you are going to read a story about trains.  Ask them if they know what a train is?  Show them a picture of a train.  Do you know what trains do?  Do you know what trains carry?  Have you ever been on a train?  Lead a general discussion about trains to find out what the children know.  Now tell them that you  are going to ask them some train riddles. (1. A train uses its wheels to get from here to there, what do we use? 2. A train sleeps in a train yard at night, where do people sleep?  3. A train drives on the train tracks, people drive on what?  4. A train drinks fuel and eats coal to nourish it, what do people eat and drink?  5.  At night time a man will scrub the dirt off the train with a hose, what do people do when they are dirty?

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; grows in eagerness to learn about and discuss a growing range of topics, ideas, nad tasks. AND Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Reading the Story

            When you read the voices of the engines make faces and voice tones to match the speech. 

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

After Reading the Story

            Review the story with the children.  Where was the little engine going, why?  What kinds of things do train carry?  Who helped the train?  What color was she?  What did she say as she pulled the train up and over the mountain?  Remind them that when they were babies they did not know how to walk but they practiced and practiced and now they can. Ask the children if they can think of a time when they had to try and try to do something (ride a bike, tie a shoe, button a button).  Help them to name things. 

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story. AND Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; demonstrates growing confidence in a range of abilities and expresses pride in accomplishments.

Discovery

            Add pictures, books, or models of real trains.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops increased ability to observe and discuss common properties, differences and comparisons among objects and materials.

Music and Movement

            Sing She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain but change the words to sing about trains. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1QUK9svSmw

She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes.

She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes.

She’ll be coming round the mountain; she’ll be coming round the mountain

She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes.

She’ll be puffing lots of smoke when she comes, puff puff

She’ll be ringing her bell when she comes, ding ding

We’ll all go out to greet her when she comes.

She’ll be bringing good food to eat when she comes.

She’ll be bringing toys for children when she comes.

Creative Arts/Music; participates with increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of music activities, including listening, singing, finger plays, games, and performances.

            Teach the children the chant CAN (point out the different who cans as you go along).

I can

You can

He can

She can

Who can?

We can!

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

            Do The Train poem

This is the little train                   (bend arms at elbow)

Puffing down the track                  (rotate arms in rhythmic pattern)

Now she’s going forward              (push arms forward)

Now she’s going back                  (pull arms back)

Now the bell is ringing                 (pretend to pull cord)

 Now the whistle blows                 (put hand fingers to thumb up by mouth)

  What a lot of noise she makes       (put hands over ears)

   Everywhere she goes!                   (Stretch out arms)

Creative Arts/Music; participates with increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of music activities, including listening, singing, finger plays, games, and performances.

Blocks

            If you have a train track, put it out.  If you do not have a train track, hang a picture of a train on the track low in the center and encourage the children to make their own track.

Mathematics/Geometry & SPatial Sense; progresses in ability to put together and take apart shapes. AND Creative Arts/Dramatic PLay; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Art

            Remind the children some things are hard to do and require practice.  Explain that today we are going to practice cutting with scissors.  Ahead of time draw rectangles and circles onto colored paper.  Have the children practice cutting these out.  Suggest to them to see if they can make a train car from all their rectangles and circles that they have cut.  If your children are competent with scissors, give them school equipment catalogs to cut out toys and put them into their train cars. Remind them to say, “I think I can, I think I can” as they practice cutting the shapes out.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors. AND Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in and complete a variety of tasks, activities, projects, and experiences.

Library and Writing

            Find a time today to play this whole class game. Put out two lines of chairs, one for every child playing the game.  On the chair tape a letter.  Make a second set of identical letters, these are the tickets.  Give each child a ticket and then let them board the train and find their seat.  After all the passengers are seated, pretend to be the ticket collector and go up the aisle making sure that the children are in the correct seat.  As you collect the ticket you could ask the children to name the letter.  If they can not say, “This is the letter S, it makes the /s/ sound.  Can you think of a word that starts with S? Put on music and the children can walk around the chairs till the music stops. Then they must find the chair that matches their ticket. Switch out the tickets among the children and put the music back on.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; shows progress in associating the names of letters with their shapes and sounds.

Sand and Water

            Add dampened sand and encourage the children to make a mountain. Give the children plastic spoons, Can they make a tunnel under the mountain?

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Dramatic Play

            Bring in stuffed animals to the center.   Add chairs to allow the children to make a train for themselves and the animals.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Math and Manipulatives

            Make copies of the train cars 1-10 and write the number on.  Let the children put the cars in 1-10 order and then  use small manipulatives to add the correct number of items.  Bear counters work well.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects. AND Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in meaningful ways.

Outdoor Play

            In the book the dolls and toys asked engines to push and pull them.  Use a wagon to demonstrate pushing and pulling. Encourage the children to push and pull each other in the wagon, on tricycles, and other riding toys.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

Transitions

            Make a simple train car for each child in the class.  Put them up on the wall randomly to form a train.  After you have all the train cars up, tell the children that this is the order that you are going to line up in today.  Help the children read their names and put themselves into the correct order in line/to wash hands/brush teeth, etc.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; identifies at least 10 letters of the alphabet, especially those in their name. AND Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions; to take turns in games and using materials; and to interact without being overly submissive or directive.

            Have all the children line up and hold the child in front of them shoulders.  Tell the children that you are a train and that the teacher/you are the engine.  Walk very slowly announcing different centers like train stops.  Let children get off at each station (Our next stop will be blocks.  All those who are playing in blocks, prepare to exit the train).

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions.

Resources