It is all about Planes, Trains and Automobiles this month at the Poppin’s Book nook. We found a great Train book perfect for bedtime:
Steam Train, Dream Train
by Sherri Duskey Rinker
The Dream train arrives at Nightfall station after dark. A team of animals jumps out to load up each truck with fun cargo. Hopping Kangaroos are in charge of loading the balls, Polar bears load a chiller car with ice cream, The toy Dinos get their own flat train cars. When all the hard work is done the animals get into their own onboard beds and are rocked to sleep as the train pulls out of the station and chugs into the night. The little twist in the end will delight readers are they realize the true ‘home’ of the dream train.
Tom Lichtenheld’s colorful pastel illustrations make the story even cosier. The clouds and the landscape pictures of the train were my favorites. The kids loved spotting all the details in the picture of each train car.
To extend the book we made our own dream train to load some furry friends into before bedtime.
The train cars were made from empty tea boxes, but boxes of all shapes and sizes would work just as well.
I wanted the kids to be able to cover the cars themselves easily, so I put out different colors of tissue paper and scotch tape. They tore and folded and scrunched it to cover each ‘car’ and then added some black circles for wheels.
Decorative tape was added to the top for a bit of extra ‘flair’. I made an engine by covering another box with construction paper and adding fancy tape.
We did not join up the train cars because the kids wanted to take turns with their own cars ‘going first’ (translation: to avoid arguments).
Here are all the toys loaded up and ready to go to bed!
Thanks for visiting us and please be sure to check out all the other books and projects shared below.
