Learning to Read with Train Books
Have you ever stood near a railroad track and watched a train? Trains are fascinating. They seem to be going so slowly at first and then faster and faster as they get closer. No matter what age you are, everyone loves trains.
As your child chugs along the way to reading, trains, train books and other train related activities can help him or her acquire the skills needed to become avid readers and lifelong learners.
Start with the Train book by Chris L. Demarest (downloadable from MobiStories) and follow the train tracks to fun and learning...
As your child chugs along the way to reading, trains, train books and other train related activities can help him or her acquire the skills needed to become avid readers and lifelong learners.
Start with the Train book by Chris L. Demarest (downloadable from MobiStories) and follow the train tracks to fun and learning...
Train Table of Contents
An American Classic
Xaras
Buy at AllPosters.com
Who doesn't love to watch trains go by?.
When my child was young his passion was trains. He loved to play with toy trains, watch trains and read train books. He could stand by the train track all day just watching the trains. The book Train by Chris L. Demarest was his favorite.
Train
by Chris L. Demarest
Do you have a train lover in the house? Train is a cute little board book that is simple and sturdy for the youngest train lover but also a great beginning reader for the children just taking off on the road to reading.Train is written in large print with very few words on each page. It is one of those rare books that appeal to adults as well as children.
Now Train not only comes in paperback or board book form, it also comes in downloadable digial form making it possible to play it on your iPhone, iPod or any Mp3 player.
- MobiStories: Digital Books for Children
- A Library in your pocket.
Books about Trains
Photo Credit: Reading The Polar Express
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
These are my children's favorite train books. Most of them are written with large print and have predictable story lines.
Train Art:
For the artistic train lovers, the artwork in Freight Train inspires experimentation with the technique the illustrator used to show the motion of the train.
Try painting the train cars in thin tempra or water colors and when still wet run a dry brush across them.
Another possibility would be to draw them in washable markers, spray the paper with water and then run the dry brush across them.
Either way it gives the illusion of motion.
Color Words:
Using two copies of Freight Train, post each page in a sequence and the children will be able to use them to help in spelling the color words.
Wooden Train Sets
and their Educational Value
At first, wooden trains my seem like just toys, but there is educational value here as well.
1. Putting together the wooden tracks with their peg-and-hole method to connect the tracks make construction and deconstruction as easy and helps with spacial relations.
2. Moving the trains along the track provide fine motor skills which will later be used to write letters.
3. The magnets that hold the cars together provide experiences in magnetism which leads to scientific understanding of physics.
4. Discussions of why people commute by train or transport goods by train leads to a better understanding of social issues and transportation.
If you are looking into getting a train set for you child you can't beat the wooden ones. They are sturdy and very unlikely to break. Though they are not meant for children who still put things in their mouths they are perfect for the 3+ crowd.
Train Track Words
Preschool Educational activities to extend the MobiStories learning experiences:
Capitalize on your child's love of Buses, Trains and other vehicles by teaching the letters using the toys he or she loves.
You can use wooden train tracks to form the letters in the word train. Then encourage your child to drive the train on the track while making the sound of each letter.
Soon you may find that your child will start to pick out the letters when reading the word Train.
You can use wooden train tracks to form the letters in the word train. Then encourage your child to drive the train on the track while making the sound of each letter.
Soon you may find that your child will start to pick out the letters when reading the word Train.
Spelling Car
Trains for Spelling
This cute little Train car helps your child learn short simple words with short vowels.
The spelling car is perfect for working on the first small words with short vowels. It can be carried along wherever you go or ride along the tracks with the other Brio or Thomas cars.
Help your child first to learn each of the letter sound individually. Teach the short vowel sounds rather than the names of the letters. Then help your child put the sounds together to form words.
The spelling car is perfect for working on the first small words with short vowels. It can be carried along wherever you go or ride along the tracks with the other Brio or Thomas cars.
Help your child first to learn each of the letter sound individually. Teach the short vowel sounds rather than the names of the letters. Then help your child put the sounds together to form words.
- Spelling Car My Train
- Maple Landmark's wooden train tracks and cars are compatible in size to most other wooden railway systems such as Brio® and Thomas the Tank®.
Reading Aloud to Your Child
Research and practice show that one simple activity - reading aloud - is the best way to prepare children for learning to read and to keep them reading as they learn and grow. -Reading is Fundamental
MobiStories read to your child when you can't.
Train Cars
Learning to read with Train Cars
Individual Train Cars can be educational . The Milk Car has the word milk written in bold letters. I like the fact that it is the generic word milk rather than promoting a brand. It is a much more useful word for a child to learn.
When playing with the milk car you might discuss how milk comes from cows, the same cows that call Moo out to the Train in the MobiStories Train Book.
The Aquarium cars are filled with a non-toxic liquid and includes a moving octopus or shark inside. You might attach a stickers below the aquarium on the black bed with the word fish written on them.
Having a print rich environment has been proven to help in reading acquisition.
Train Lapbook
Train Unit Study Portfolio
Lapbooks are a great way to organize the information that you have learned in your unit study. Here are some Train themed lapbooks.
Train Lapbooks
Keeping Track of Your Train Unit Study
From library books to Lapbooks, and on to MobiStories, reading is the best way to prepare our children to become avid readers and lifelong learners.
- Train books for Preschoolers
- Recommended by the San Mateo County Library
- Train Lapbook
- Home + school = life is good: The Silver Package
- Trains Lapbook
- Caleb shows off his Trains Lapbook.
The Short Vowel Christmas Train Bulletin Board
Christmas Train Ideas
The Christmas Train is coming. Each of the cars are filled with toys who's names have short vowels.
The first car holds toys with a short a sound.
The second car holds toys with a short e sound. etc.
Make the cars from small cereal boxes.
Write the vowel on the front of each car.
Cut out and laminate pictures from used phonics books.
Attach the pictures to Popsicle sticks.
Children put the toys in the right cars.
Hooked on Phonics: Beginning Words
Amazon Price: (as of 12/19/2009) 
Train
Chris L. Demarest's well chosen words evoke the sounds and sights of riding a train. They invite the reader to bounce a toddler on the knee while reading and pointing to the boldly colored pictures.
Train chugs,
Clickity-clack
Engine up front
Caboose in back
Pass farms
Cows moo
Over hills
Choo! Choo!
Some of the older wooden tracks have grooves in them which make the Clickity Clack sounds.
Train chugs,Clickity-clack
Engine up front
Caboose in back
Pass farms
Cows moo
Over hills
Choo! Choo!
Some of the older wooden tracks have grooves in them which make the Clickity Clack sounds.
- MobiStories
Download Train by Chris L. Demarest and let your child listen the words of the story while he or she watches the pictures and and sees the words as they are spoken.
Read to Your Child
MibiStories Read to Your Child When You Can't
Have you ever been reading to your child when the phone rang? A very important call was coming in and you needed to speak to the person immediately.
Stories by well-known authors, such as Chris L. Demarest, are now downloadable. Just pull your iPod out of your pocket and hand your child his favorite story, Train already downloaded and waiting to read to him while you finish your call and can focus your attention on him again.
- National Center for Family Literacy
- Reading together is magical. As you discover adventures between the covers of a book, you also discover things about each other. And with every page you turn, your child expands vocabulary, comprehension, reasoning, grammar and other skills.
Pick up and Put away the Train Set
Clean up Transition Time
When it's time to clean up and you need to go out, having a wooden train table with drawers underneath for storage makes clean up quick and easy.
I have one drawer labeled tracks and the other labeled train cars to add to the print rich environment.
The act of sorting the tracks from the train cars is an early math skill leading up to sets, addition and eventually multiplication.
Kidkraft Train Table Plus Trundles and 100 PC Super Space Train Set
Amazon Price: (as of 12/19/2009)
Picking up the Train Set
Getting your child to come away from the train, however, could be a lot more difficult.
As we all know, fighting with a toddler never works but turning it into a game does. I like to sing song such as:
Clean-up SongClean-up, clean-up
Everybody get some toys.
Clean-up, clean-up
All the little girls and boys.
Clean-up, clean-up
Everybody do your share.
Clean-up, clean-up
Everybody, everywhere.
Train
by Chris L. Demarest
Then offer a special treat such as listening to a favorite Train story on your iPod or other Mp3 device. MobiStories make those few minutes when you can't focus on your child a wholesome learning experience.MobiStories are stories that you read to your child anyway but in a format ideal for when driving in the car, in line at the bank or unloading grocery carts.
- MobiStories
Download Train by Chris L. Demarest- Preschool Nursery Rhymes for Transition Times
- Early childhood songs, action poems and fingerplays that help preschool children ease into activities.
Ship by Chris L. Demarest on Youtube
Another look at Mobistories
Ship, along with Bus, Plane, and Train are the four Transportation books written by Chris L. Demarest. The following is a pre-view of Ship.
Trains, Trains and more Trains
Boyhood Dreams
Rockwell, Norman
Buy at AllPosters.com
Which kinds of Trains would your child like ?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byA train and a train story.
A train story and a train.
ElizabethJeanAllen says:
I no longer have small kids in the house (except for my husband.) He has a set of American Flyers running across the top of our entertainment center.
Posted November 23, 2008
Trains on Ebay
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
Trains and Train Books for the Train Literacy Bag
Literacy Bags are fun ways to help parents to connect with the themes being taught in schools. These bags generally have several stories, both fiction and non-fiction, a stuffed animal and several suggested activities. A journal comes with each literacy bag to record the adventures of the stuffed animal while visiting each home. Parents, with the help of their children, write in the journal for children who are not yet able to.
ABC Train Literacy Bag
Pick both a fiction and non-fiction book, a couple of ABC activities, an ABC floor puzzle and a related plush animal to go in your Literacy Bags. Include a journal to record the adventures of your stuffed animal. Literacy Bags connect the theme being studied at school with home and allow children to share their learning experiences with their families.
Homeschoolers often share Literacy Bags between families. Some Public Libraries are beginning to have Literacy Bags which can be checked out.
Alphabet Train Tote Bag
Price: 16.99
Train Phonics
This coloring page of a train would be good for writing the words your child discovers on the Spelling Train Car (above). Write one letter on each of the three cars.
Make extra copies for each word.
Cut out the trains and help your child put the cars in ABC order.
Line the trains up along the chair rail and practice reading them.
Talk about what each train could be hauling. The what kinds of hats might the HAT TRAIN be carrying and where might the train be coming from and going to.
Children that have already learned the short vowels and are ready to go on to the long vowels will enjoy -Ain as in Train which helps to introduce the long a in -ain.
Ain As in Train (Word Families Set 8)
Introduces the use of the letter combination "ain" in such words as "train," "sprain," "chain," and "brain."
Amazon Price: $19.93 (as of 12/19/2009)
Train related Lenses
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Beep, Beep Goes the Bus
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One of the most popular themes for preschoolers is transportation. Listen to the sound of a bus going beep, beep, beep. Hear the roar of the bus as it pulls up to the bus stop. Notice the hiss of the air coming from the brakes. With their bright col...
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Transportation Unit Study
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Young children are always on the go so it only follows that some of their favorite toys are cars, boats, planes and trains. This transportation theme can wheel us along with games, math activities and science projects that keep your child busily lear...
Riding on the Traintracks
Looking For The Moon - Tom Paxton
Listen to the beat of Tom Paxton's music which resembles the beat of the train rolling down the tracks.
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Father's Christmas Train Puzzle
Trains for Christmas
MibiStories can read a Train story to your child while you finish putting the puzzle together.
Use the picture in the puzzle to start a conversation with your child about trains. Make up stories about what the father and son will do next.
- Father's Christmas Train Puzzle
- While Dad is playing with the Train, his son is reading about trains.
Model Trains
Learn all about the hobby of Model Trains and how to make authentic scenery for your model village.
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Lionel Trains
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Lionel Trains are the best known American electric trains. Most Lionel Trains are modeled in O scale (1/48 of actual size), which is about twice as large as HO scale (HO stands for "Half-O) but still not as large as G scale. Lionel does produce some...
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Nathanville Model Railway Village
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Nathanville Model Railway Village - Welcomes Careful Train Drivers! - And Railway Enthusiasts. A Tour of Nathanville in the making with tips on its constructions, photos and links to the main site for more information. Also browse the relevant l...
More MobiStories like Bus are waiting for you:
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The Thanksgiving Tale of Tobias Turkey
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Tobias Turkey is a determined little turkey who wants to win the prize for being the biggest turkey on Farmer Joe's Farm. This Thanksgiving Tale by Sandra Robbins can lead into a unit study of domestic turkeys with poems, crafts, math activities...
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Autumn Unit Study
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Leaves are crunching below your feet and geese are flying overhead. It's time to gather in the pumpkins and munch on crisp ripe apples. Watch the squirrels gather nuts and the birds fight over the sunflower seeds. Fall is here and learning is all aro...
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Big Annie: Mississippi Flatboat Captain
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Activities related to the story of Big Annie, a flatboat captain who, despite all odds, brings Christmas toys from New Orleans up the river to the children of Natchez. Learn about the cultures, historical times and wildlife along the Mississippi Riv...
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Wintertime Activities for Kids
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Winter is the time to snuggle up and with a good book, make a winter table and watch the snowflakes falling down. It's a time when the days are short, the nights are cold and the smell of woodsmoke is in the air. Get ready for the cold with The...
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Lumpy Bumpy Pumpkin Unit Study
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There are five little pumpkins in Farmer Joe's Pumpkin Patch. Four of them are round and shiny and look like the perfect pumpkins but the fifth little pumpkin is lumpy and bumpy. Lumpy Bumpy Pumpkin is on stage in NYC jaround Halloween at Shadow Box...
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How do you use a train theme to teach children?
MobiStories don't take away from reading the actual books, they actually enhance the experience. You can even try one out for free. I wasn't convinced at first that I could endorse them as I tend to stay away from technology for children but I have found that these downloadable stories truly encourage reading of the real book. I hope you check them out.
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- bygproductions bygproductions Oct 25, 2009 @ 11:32 pm
- My husband being a rail fan meant my daughters got more train field trips than they ever wanted. Besides the train museum in Sacramento we live fairly close to the Orange Empire Railway Museum. In fact their have a special event the first two full weekends in Nov, featuring another regular in our house when the girls were young, Thomas the Tank... http://www.oerm.org/pages/dowt_main.html Thanks for stopping by my Homeschool Questions Lens
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- ratso ratso Dec 12, 2008 @ 8:12 am
- Wonderful lens, I was very young when I fell in love with trains and railroads too. Once it happens you never loose it. 5*
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- michelledurakis michelledurakis Dec 11, 2008 @ 1:42 pm
- Great Lens on trains, 5*
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- michelledurakis michelledurakis Dec 11, 2008 @ 1:42 pm
- Great Lens on trains, 5*
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- ElizabethJeanAllen ElizabethJeanAllen Nov 23, 2008 @ 10:00 am
- Trains are a great learning tool. I use them when explaining the Doppler Affect to my Physical Science students.
Great lens
Lizzy
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- ViolinStudent ViolinStudent Nov 16, 2008 @ 5:55 pm
- I LOVE model trains, and wish I had more space to keep mine running! Even with our limited space, out pop my old Lionel Trains at Christmas. I've just recently discovered Squidoo, and was experimenting with putting together a lens. It's still a work in progress, but Christmas Trains is a start on what I hope will become as fun a lens as yours!
Art Haule
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- Joan4 Joan4 Nov 15, 2008 @ 8:21 am
- Oh that Christmas poster of the Dad playing with the train is perfect and oh so true! We all love trains, especially daddys and little boys! Lensrolling to Trains! Trains! Trains!
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- TheWhistler TheWhistler Oct 25, 2008 @ 10:34 am
- I love trains. I am going to date myself now but when I was little, growing up in Scotland, they still had steam engines, a Scot invented the steam engine you know. I am sure you did but it doesn't hurt to remind people. I loved to walk by and see the engineer checking the gauges and the fireman stocking the engine. I didn't realize how much hard work it involved. Still there is nothing like a steam engine. My favourite train "The Flying Scotsman" of course.
Great lens. Kids love trains.
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- Lisa_Jo Lisa_Jo Oct 22, 2008 @ 12:45 pm
- What a great way to teach children. Trains are captivating at all ages. This is a wonderful lens and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. :)
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- groovyoldlady groovyoldlady Oct 21, 2008 @ 7:28 am
- Choo-Choo!
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- funwithtrains funwithtrains Oct 18, 2008 @ 8:46 am
- These are great resources to get the little ones into trains, which can be a fun and wholesome hobby for the entire family. We've got a lot of Thomas the Train wooden trains for the toddlers, and have electric trains for supervised play (and grown-up play!). Thanks for mentioning my Lionel Trains lens!
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- Angelina_Howard Angelina_Howard Oct 15, 2008 @ 9:22 pm
- We have two boys at home. Between Thomas and Ikea tracks, we have enough track to go from one end of the house to the next. I know becuase they have done it. For our boys the tracks teach them to colloborate toghether. Thank you for such an informative lens!
Meet the Author of this Lens
Evelyn's Hands-On Learning Blog.
Find out what I'm thinking about when I'm riding a train:-
Evelyn Saenz: Lensography of a Teacher
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My passion is teaching and finding ways to teach children in fun, hands-on, creative ways. The unit studies I make on Squidoo reflect my view that learning should be integrated and no skills should be taught in isolation. I believe that each topic s...
by Evelyn_Saenz
My passion is teaching and finding ways to teach children in fun, hands-on, creative ways. The unit studies I make on Squidoo reflect my view that lea... (more)
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