Paper Train Craft

Supplies:
Printer
A piece of paper
Some crayons (or paint or markers)
Scissors
Glue
I always prefer to use a heavy paper (like construction paper), but it isn't necessary. Optional materials include a cotton ball, photos or magazine clippings of children or toys, and spaghetti or linguini.

Directions:
-Print out the template of choice. If using the black and white template, try printing it on colored construction paper.
-Color (where appropriate) and cut out the template pieces. Adults may need to help with the cutting.
-Glue the face onto the front of the train.
-Glue the smokestack onto the top. You can glue a bit of cotton ball to the smokestack as pretend smoke. If you want to make it a bit more environmentally realistic, you can color the cotton grey or black with marker or paint.
-Glue the wheels onto the bottom of the train.
-You can stop here with TEMPLATE #1 or print template #2 as well.
-Glue the car and caboose from template #2 onto the back of the train. Explain that the caboose of the train is always the last (the caboose is on the top of the page on template 2. The car is on the bottom).
-You can cut out magazine pictures of toys or children, a picture from a coloring book, or a small photo of the child and glue them into the car or onto the back of the caboose.
-Really young kids may have an easier time attaching the cars, cotton balls, etc. if they glue everything to a background piece of paper (they also have the opportunity to color in a sky, grass, clouds etc. this way). This also allows you to use uncooked pieces of spaghetti or linguini, glued underneath of the train's wheels, to represent train tracks.

TEMPLATE #1

TEMPLATE #2