The Little Engine that Could: Shape Train

Here’s what you’ll need to play: a kitchen sponge cut into various shapes, washable paint, a black marker and paper. 

We started our activity by discussing our story this week, The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper. We talked about how the Little Engine was so kind to help the dolls, toys, and silly little clown over the mountain. To practice kindness we started our activity today by making a card to send her sweet little cousin up in North Carolina. Good characters in storybooks can be effective tools in teaching good character to our children as well. The thoughtfulness, bravery, and kindness of the Little Engine are certainly traits I’d desire each of our children to emulate. 

Next we got out a sheet of finger paint paper and made our big shape train! 

I sat beside her and each time she chose a stamp she would identify it, “this is a blue, triangle” “a red square” … She stamped down a line of different shapes identifying them as she painted. To give a more train-like appearance I added the embellishment of wheels and an engine silhouette. 

Then of course in true artist form she wanted to sign her name. 🙂 

Skills we practiced today: Story Retelling, Character, Shape Identification, Color identification, Left to Right Progression, Spacial Awareness, and Hand-Eye Coordination.