Montessori-Inspired Train Activities Using Free Printables

By Deb Chitwood from Living Montessori Now 


I've had trains on the brain a lot lately. Not only is my 2-year-old granddaughter in love with Thomas the train (and trains in general), but the Christmas season is always a natural time to think of trains. 

You'll find lots of free train printables in my post today at Living Montessori Now. Here, I'm sharing some Montessori-inspired train activities using free printables for preschoolers through first graders. 

You'll find many activities for preschoolers through first graders throughout the year along with presentation ideas in my previous posts at PreK + K Sharing. You'll also find ideas for using free printables to create activity trays here: How to Use Printables to Create Montessori-Inspired Activities. 

At Living Montessori Now, I have a post with resource links of Free Printables for Montessori Homeschools and Preschools. 

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you. 

Thomas the Train Puzzle

Free Printable: Thomas and Friends Puzzle from Thomas and Friends 

I used a large plastic tray from Montessori Services. 

Thomas and Friends has 31 free printable puzzles. I love that they give a simple way for Thomas fans to work on puzzle skills at a variety of levels. With toddlers, you can laminate and use the uncut printable as a control chart or background for the puzzle. Older children can put the puzzles together without the control chart. Children who are very skilled at solving puzzles could sort out and put together more than one puzzle. 

Polar Express Train Track Cutting Practice 

 

Free Printable: Train Track Cutting Practice from the Polar Express Mega Pack by 123 Homeschool 4 Me 

This was super easy to prepare. It simply involved printing out the printable on cardstock (which is easier for young children to cut than paper). I love the fun and creative printable for cutting practice. 

Magnetic Train Shapes Tracing Activity 



Free Printable: Train Shapes from Zoomin’ Movin’ Alphabet Letter Tt by Royal Baloo 

I used the Melissa and Doug Magnetic Chalk Dry Erase Board (with chalk and eraser) for this activity. I also used a Montessori Services basket to hold the train shapes. 

After printing out, laminating, and cutting out the shapes, I added a piece of magnetic strip to each shape. This activity can be used as both a way to reinforce the names of shapes as well as a pre-writing activity similar to the Montessori metal insets. After using the magnets to attach each shape, the child could use the chalk to trace around the shapes. 

Number Train



Free Printable: Number Train by Sara from All Things with Purpose at Sugar Bee Crafts 

The size of this learning activity adds extra interest. Each numbered train car is on an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of cardstock. It couldn't be much easier to prepare. I just had to print out and laminate each page.



Beginning Letter Sound Train



Free Printable: All Aboard the Beginning Sound Train by Deeanne Wright at Teachers Pay Teachers 

I used some inexpensive sandpaper letters I had from my master's degree school placement. You could use sandpaper letters or other tactile letters to reinforce the letter sound before putting together the letter sound train. 

 

I used a Montessori Services rug for the layout. You can find resources on how to introduce Montessori phonics in my DIY beginning Montessori phonics post. 

Polar Express Telling Time Train



Free Printable: Telling Time Train from the Polar Express Mega Pack by 123 Homeschool 4 Me 

Many children today have difficulty reading an analog clock. An activity like this one can provide some of the much-needed practice. The printable is actually for matching clocks by drawing lines. I like to cut apart printables to make hands-on activities like this activity to match digital and analog clocks. 

More Free Train Printables  

Go to my post at Living Montessori Now for links to free train printables from around the blogosphere: Free Train Printables and Montessori-Inspired Train Activities. 

More Montessori-Inspired Train Activities   

You'll find more Montessori-inspired train activities in my "Montessori-Inspired Train Activities with Spielgaben {Free Printables}."

If you'd like to focus on manners with children, please check out my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to Teach Grace and Courtesy! It's written for anyone who'd like to feel comfortable teaching manners to children ages 2-12. I'm also one of the coauthors of the book Learn with Play – 150+ Activities for Year-round Fun & Learning!

Happy harvest season!

 

Deb Chitwood is a certified Montessori teacher with a master’s degree in Early Childhood Studies from Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, England. Deb taught in Montessori schools in Iowa and Arizona before becoming owner/director/teacher of her own Montessori school in South Dakota. Later, she homeschooled her two children through high school. Deb is now a Montessori writer who lives in San Diego with her husband of 40 years (and lives in the city where her kids, kids-in-law, and toddler granddaughter live). She blogs at Living Montessori Now.