Freight Train Craft

Both of my children love the book Freight Train, by Donald Crews.  With its simple language and bold pictures, it's a keeper.

  Now that my daughter, age 4, can draw some basic shapes, I thought it would be great for her to draw her own freight train, based on the book, and have her color it.  Since my son likes to color, I thought I could draw the train, and have him color it.

We began by reading the book, one page at a time, and drawing the car that was there.  I modeled it for M.  First we drew the train track.  Then we drew a red rectangle at the back and colored it.  We continued until her freight train was complete.  Her coloring skills hide her nice shapes, but she was very proud.  If you look closely, you can see the wheels and how the cars are connected.

As it turns out, E was not interested in coloring the train.  He just colored for fun while we worked.  I think last year's Freight Train craft would be much more his style.  Just a simple paper craft!  (Click to see it!)

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