Preview A Project: Train of Thought

Written By Julia DeMontagnac

Academic Overview:

One of the major progress indicators for English Language Arts at the third-grade level is demonstrating command of standard English grammar conventions and usage when writing or speaking. This involves: 

  • Understand how to sequence different words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) work in a sentence

  • Make sure the subject and verb match, and pronouns match the words they replace

  • Use connecting words like and, but, because, although

This activity allows students to practice the sequencing and sentence construction skills. 

Let’s Start With A Story

Follow along Oliver Streamstrong’s journeys to see how failure can lead to great things!

Materials:

  1. Downloadable Train Parts

  2. Downloadable Location Graphics

  3. Medium to Large Poster Paper

  4. Pencils & Coloring Materials

  5. Glue

Quick Prep (For Parents And Teachers):

Prepare the train parts

    1. Print and cut out each train car

    2. Group the train cars by color

    3. Mix up the train cars within each color group

Prepare the location graphics

  1. Print and cut out the location graphics

Diving Into The Fun:

Train Construction:

  1. Pick a train color

  2. Lay out the mixed-up box cars of the corresponding train color

  3. Connect each box car based on logical sentence order

  4. When confident with the answer, glue together the box cars

  5. Repeat for each color

Poster Building (Option to use location graphics or to draw your own!)

  1. Glue the train station cutout to the center of the poster board

  2. At the four corners of the poster, glue each location (bakery, dog park, restaurant, park)

  3. Glue the railways from the train station to each location

  4. Glue the train with the location-related sentence to the railways, so it is going towards the location

  5. Color or decorate the poster to make a custom train town

Let’s Wrap Up With A Meditation:

Join Dr. Pali for a relaxing meditation!

Julia DeMontagnac