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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.
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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:
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Intense Debate comment form didn't load when I visited, so hopefully you got this comment using Blogger's comment form. Gotta "love" Blogger right?? Anywho, did you change your header? I like the fresh fonts and colors. So many train, rock ideas!!!!! Hehe. Glad you are putting them to fun and educational use. How cute, "chewy chewy".
How Fun! My little ones would love this one too. I can see them using the train pieces for all sorts of imaginative play. I would like to invite you to share your post with us on our linky, Share It Saturday. We have lots of creative bloggers linking up each week and you would fit right in! http://www.sugaraunts.com/2013/04/share-it-saturday-14-and-our-week-in.html I hope to see you there! Colleen at http://www.sugaraunts.com
Got your comment :-). I did change my header!! Thanks for noticing. I appreciate the compliment, I was definitely going for something clean and fresh. I seriously can not stop painting rocks. More to come :-). HaHa!!
Hi Colleen – thanks for stopping by! There really is so many fun activities you can do with train rocks. Thanks for the invite to your lovely Share It Saturday party. I just linked up! Nice to see too that you are doing 100 Days of Play! I'm looking forward to our day and seeing what everyone else does.
We decided to feature your post as part of our Creative Play for Toddlers round-up on Share It Saturday tomorrow. We hope to see you again on our link up. (We love your ideas!) http://www.sugaraunts.com
The Little Engineer spotted these featured somewhere, and he wanted to tell you: I want to do train rocks! I like the trains, and the colors, too. They are good.
Haha, love it! I bet his train rocks will be AMAZING! I don't have the book Freight Train yet but someone recommended I get it to go along with these rocks. I'm betting you probably have it.
So cute and such a great idea to play & learn at the same time! I featured this post on my #spreadbloggylove Share Saturday. If you'd like to see check it out here: http://www.creativekristi.com/share-saturday-2/
What an adorable idea!
Intense Debate comment form didn't load when I visited, so hopefully you got this comment using Blogger's comment form. Gotta "love" Blogger right?? Anywho, did you change your header? I like the fresh fonts and colors. So many train, rock ideas!!!!! Hehe. Glad you are putting them to fun and educational use. How cute, "chewy chewy".
How Fun! My little ones would love this one too. I can see them using the train pieces for all sorts of imaginative play. I would like to invite you to share your post with us on our linky, Share It Saturday. We have lots of creative bloggers linking up each week and you would fit right in! http://www.sugaraunts.com/2013/04/share-it-saturday-14-and-our-week-in.html I hope to see you there!
Colleen at http://www.sugaraunts.com
Such a gorgeous and unique way of teaching colours. Thank you and well done.
Thanks so much! It was lots of fun to make and even more fun watching my son play with them.
Got your comment :-). I did change my header!! Thanks for noticing. I appreciate the compliment, I was definitely going for something clean and fresh. I seriously can not stop painting rocks. More to come :-). HaHa!!
Hello,
I have a question about your blog, could you please email me? Thanks!!
Melanie
Hi Colleen – thanks for stopping by! There really is so many fun activities you can do with train rocks. Thanks for the invite to your lovely Share It Saturday party. I just linked up! Nice to see too that you are doing 100 Days of Play! I'm looking forward to our day and seeing what everyone else does.
Sam
Thank you so much Kate! I really do love just looking at these rocks. So full of color.
What a totally great idea! I love everything about this! 🙂
We decided to feature your post as part of our Creative Play for Toddlers round-up on Share It Saturday tomorrow. We hope to see you again on our link up. (We love your ideas!) http://www.sugaraunts.com
Yay, how fun! A perfect way to kick off the weekend. I'll be there tomorrow with bells on :-).
This Is SO cute! Thanks for linking to Share It Saturday!
The Little Engineer spotted these featured somewhere, and he wanted to tell you: I want to do train rocks! I like the trains, and the colors, too. They are good.
Thanks Karyn! I have more rock activities to come. I just can't seem to stop.
Haha, love it! I bet his train rocks will be AMAZING! I don't have the book Freight Train yet but someone recommended I get it to go along with these rocks. I'm betting you probably have it.
Such a great idea! Just posted on Craft Gossip, I am definitely doing this for my 2 year old!
http://lessonplans.craftgossip.com/?p=7958
So cute and such a great idea to play & learn at the same time! I featured this post on my #spreadbloggylove Share Saturday. If you'd like to see check it out here: http://www.creativekristi.com/share-saturday-2/
Thanks!
Yes, this would be perfect for Freight Train! You'll have to make another set. 🙂
That is such a cute idea. Our little ones love trains and are learning colors. How perfect! Thank you.