Easy to Make Train Math Game

One thing I love about doing the Virtual Book Club for kids is that it gets me thinking about what activity we will do with the book. This month’s book is The Little Engine That Could: 60th Anniversary Edition. This is a classic book with a great story.

There is so much you can learn from this book. We enjoyed reading the book and doing a fun and easy train math game.

This was really easy to set up and my girls helped me make the game board. We had some fun foam stickers that we found to make it. We looked for different shapes in the container to make to mark our spots. I did this activity with all of my girls. They each did something different with the board.

What you need for this activity: sheet of paper, pen, Bucket of Foamies Stickers, Cars and Trucks, a six sided die and dice in dice.

My youngest did this game by rolling the dice and moving that many spots. She would tell me the number she rolled on the die and count the spots that she would move on the board.

I would also ask her what shape and color that she landed on. We counted the sides on the different shapes. This was a good way to work on more counting, color and shapes at the same time.

My older girls wanted a chance to play as well. I pulled out our dice in dice for them to do some subtraction work.

My middle did a little how quick can you subtract the smaller number from the bigger number. The dice did not always come up with a number and she often for zero for an answer. She found it took her longer to go through the board than my youngest.

My oldest also wanted to play. She is in 4th grade so I changed up the game again. She had to do the same subtraction that my middle did, but also had to tell me what the two number would multiple too. This was a challenge because she had to do the math for both within 25 seconds. It made the game fun and something different. She used the same dice in dice but we could have also used the 12-sided dice in a dice.

Who says you can’t make learning fun for different ages with the same game. We love it at our house! Plus everyone got to be a part of putting it together and playing. This is also something they can play over and over. We did some variations to see who could get to the end with the least amount of rolls or who could land on the most color in three games of play. There are always ways to change something up.

What would you change up to make it work at your house?

You could also check out this other train and transportation activities:

• Color Train Freight
• April Poppins Book Nook: Planes, Trains and Automobiles!
• Go, Go, Go, Stop – Traffic Light Fun

Check out all the Little Engine Who Could Activities:

• Train Challenge with The Little Engine That Could by Preschool Powel Packets
• The Little Engine that Could ABC Activity by Growing Book by Book
• Train Science with the Little Engine that Could by Inspiration Laboratories
• Tracing Shapes with Trains by I Can Teach My Child
• Counting on and back with trains by Rainy Day Mum
• I Think I CAN Sight Word Activity by Still Playing School
• Train Themed Treat for Kids by Toddler Approved
• Build A Train Game by Mama Miss
• Train Color Sorting Activity by Mon Inspired Life

Be sure to check out more of the Virtual Book Club Books for 2015-2016. See all the books that we have completed already and the activities that we did with them.

Cassie – 3Dinosaurs.com