Does your little one love trains?  How about puzzles?  Let’s add some counting to the mix for good measure, and we get a Train Counting Puzzle.  My inspiration for this was the Caterpillar Counting Puzzle I talked about yesterday.

Train Counting Puzzle

Painting in a Baggie

This is what we did.

I cut three cereal boxes into squares/rectangles.  I thought Jamie’s idea for painting in a baggie was a brilliant idea.  So we tried it.

Aiden pretty much hated it.  I tried to sell the idea by showing him how the paint squished around.  I even pulled out a rolling pin so he could flatten it.  Yeah, not so much.  He wanted to use a paint brush.  This didn’t work in the baggie, so he just opened the bag and that was the end of that brilliant idea.  Maybe it will work for you though.  Jamie’s toddler loved it.

Painting with a Brush

I gave in and let Aiden paint with a sponge brush not in a baggie.  I squirted some paint onto the cardboard, and he went to town asking for more paint ever so often.

Aiden would choose to have all of the colors on every cardboard piece if I let him.  Did you notice that on his paper bag art piece?  Most everything he paints turns out gray.

I carefully limited his color choices so we would be able to vary the colors of the train.  I did let him use all of the colors on a couple of the pieces.

I painted edges after Aiden was done painting each cardboard piece.

We let the cardboard pieces dry while we went off to play.

Train Engine and Cars

Later, I turned our painted pieces into train cars and an engine.  I rounded corners on some of the cars and cut various shapes out to make the train.  I had a super fun time cutting out the circles.  I had a few circles leftover from our Valentine Matching Games, but not enough for all of the train.  I should have pulled out my Silhouette to let it cut out the circles for me.  Instead I traced the bottom of a paint bottle and cut the circles by hand.

I put together the engine and glued on the wheels.

Train Counting Puzzle

Now for the puzzle creating part.  I just cut out a random shape from a train car and attached it to the car/engine in front with a skinny rectangle in between.

While I was turning the train into a puzzle, Aiden decided it would be a good idea to color on the train cars with crayons.  Who am I to stop him?

I put the train puzzle in order and numbered the cars.  Then, I added animal stickers to each car.  Train car number 1 received one bear sticker, train car number 2 was allowed two snake stickers, etc…  Aiden was off doing something else at this point, otherwise I would have had him add the stickers to the train cars.

That’s it!  Aiden put the train together and we counted the animals as he did this.  Then, he decided it would be fun to march around the train to “The Ants Go Marching,” so, of course, I broke out in song so he could march.

Train and Counting Books

We paired the train counting puzzle with some books as well.

	We read 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle  {It’s a counting book about a train full of animals – how fitting!}
	We also read Skippyjon Jones 1-2-3 {a board book that counts some of the things a naughty kitty gets into}
Lastly, we read a Thomas the Train lift the flap book.  No numbers or counting in this one {except for the numbers on Thomas and James}, but it is fun to see the things under the flaps.  You could always count the things you find.

 

What are your favorite train or counting books? {bonus for both}

I’m linking up with my here.

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