As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links. See our full disclosure here.
What do you get when you have more rocks than you know what to do with and a toddler who loves trains? You get colored choo-choo train rocks! When I first saw this idea on Etsy, at HappyEmotions store, I knew immediately that I had to make Jake a set. Not only are train rocks fun, easy and inexpensive to make, they are also perfect for helping kids learn colors.
(This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.)
Materials needed:
Rocks – I get mine at the beach,but if you don’t have any that you can find outside check the craft store or Dollar Store.
Paint – I always use acrylic paint. Martha Stewart high gloss acrylics are my current paint of choice. I love that they are made for all surfaces.
Paint brush
Varnish – I use Mod Podge as a sealant and I prefer the matte version.
I started out by painting an oval shape on my rocks. Two coats of paint worked well. After the paint dried covered the painted portion in Mod Podge. Next, I used my white pen to draw the trains (don’t forget an engine and caboose, very important to the kiddos).
Here’s the fun part. There’s lots of ways you can use your train rocks for teaching colors. Draw a train track and have the child match the rocks to the colored tracks. Or use paint chips to create another easy to make color matching game.
You could also paint an extra piece of train track and use that for color matching. The train track idea came to me as I was writing this post hence the poor paint job. I was so excited about it I took the picture before it was even dry.
As a final idea you could add a magnet to the back of your trains and use them on a magnetic chalkboard or dry erase board. Can you imagine all of the railroad tracks you could create!
Jake’s napping right now so I have to save my surprise until he wakes up. I can hear him already yelling excitedly, “chewy, chewy”, aka choo-choo.
For more ideas on teaching colors, check out these other posts:
With Father’s Day coming up, I thought it would be fun to make a handmade Father’s Day Gift instead of just buying one this year. I always love the thought and effort behind handmade gifts and this is a great gift to give any dad for Father’s Day. You could even do this Father’s Day…
My six year-old has forgotten about his fidget spinner. It sits lonely and still on his bedroom dresser. I find myself spinning it each time I go into his room hoping to bring back the magic that was once there when he first received it. But no magic has returned. It still sits lonely. But I have an idea on how to bring the magic back…
I’ve been seeing a ton of fun resin crafts lately and I wanted to create something that looked like resin but without having to use resin which can be complicated and requires special protective gear when handling. That’s when I came up with the idea of creating these fun no resin acrylic key chains. These…
If you didn’t already know, we love the alphabet at our house and have an entire wall dedicated to it. Since my 2 year old son loves letters, I wanted to make him some alphabet rocks to practice his ABC’s. In the process I realized there is a lot you can do with rocks and…
These puffy paint sugar skull rocks are a great project for all ages to help learn and celebrate Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos. There’s a secret weapon though when it comes to making them. Not all puffy paint is created equal. I actually tried several brands before I came across the…
Fall is the perfect time of year to try leaf painting. There are so many different ways to paint leaves and pretty much any art supply you use on paper you can use to decorate leaves. I’m a big fan of painting galaxies on rocks and wood and I couldn’t wait to try making galaxy…