Trains At Home For Elementary Students (K-6)

This is a fun, easy activity. We first tried this activity out at our Golden Spike Festival in May 2019. We had a lot of fun!

You can use as many pool noodles as you want. Cut them to whatever size fits your needs. We like to cut some in half to be the railroad ties.

Kids don’t need much direction for this activity. However, if you want to make it more educational, you could explain how the ties were laid down first, then the rails were added on top of the ties, and finally secured with spikes.


Railroad Tie


Rails and Spikes


In this image, you can see the rail, tie, and spike

Tooele County Map

-Where will it go?
-How many stops will it have?
-Why did you plan the stops you have decided upon?
-How fast will your train travel?
-What kind of train is it?
-Where will you build the train station?
-How much money would it cost to take the train?
-How many days per week will it run?
-What are the hours of operation of the train?
-What safety guidelines would you have?
-What would you name the train?
-What logo would you give it?
-What colors would you want the train to be?
-Design the image you are thinking of.
-Creating a Passenger Train to Network Through Tooele County
-Using a map of Tooele County, map a route for the train to follow.
-Where will it go?
-How many stops will it have?
-Why did you plan the stops you have decided upon?
-How fast will your train travel?
-What kind of train is it?
-Where will you build the train station?
-How much money would it cost to take the train?
-How many days per week will it run?
-What are the hours of operation of the train?
-What safety guidelines would you have?
-What would you name the train?
-What logo would you give it?
-What colors would you want the train to be?
-Design the image you are thinking of.

Operation Lifesaver K-2 Safety Lesson

All Aboard the Choo Choo Train

Tooele Valley Railway Signals

1. Find an object at home you can use to practice the signals, such as a lantern, bucket, flashlight, glow sticks in a basket, any item you choose (you can even use your favorite stuffed animal).
2. Practice the signals used by train engineers, conductors, and depot workers listed below.  Talk about other types of signals people use, such as lights, signs, whistles, horns, etc.
3.  We like to play stop and go games with the signals at the museum.  Some children get to send signals, others act like engineers and follow the signal. ***the signals show below are the actual signals used on the Tooele Valley Railway.  They came from the 1910 rule book.

If you don’t have a train set at home, you can make one.

Counting Train Locomotive
Counting Train Car
Counting Train Caboose
What can you learn?

Colors, counting, and train cars

How to build it:

1. Print the templates for the cars you want to build.
2. Color the cars.
3. Cut out the train car along the exterior solid line.
4. Cut along the dotted line.
5. Fold along the solid vertical lines.
6. Use tape or glue to assemble the cars.
7. Attach the cars together using glue dots or string.

How does it work?

Count the number of cars you add to your train

Look around your house or yard and find some freight

Load and unload the freight counting out each piece each time

Practice counting to 100

Practice counting in a different language

You can also teach concepts like half by splitting freight from one car into two cars.

Practice your even and odd numbers by counting in 2s or 3s.

• Golden Spike Coloring Page
• Transcontinental Railroad Coloring Page
• Union Pacific Coloring Book