Animal Train
Have loads of fun learning about animals by making a paper train filled with animals!
Featured Crafts
Supplies Needed
- A4 or Letter size paper
- Cardstock or construction paper in various colors
- Crayons or colored pencils
- Glue stick
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Animal magazine cut-outs (optional)
STEPS
1Create some animals.
Draw your favorite animals, look for them in old magazines, or print out any of these animal sets:
2Color and cut out the animals.
Color and cut out the animals. Skip the coloring step if you chose the colored animal sets or magazine cut-outs.
3Set the size of the train cars.
Use the largest animal to set the size of your train cars. Take an A4 or Letter size cardstock and fold in half. Place the animal inside the folded sheet. Trim the car's height so that it reaches just above the animal's legs and the width should be roomy enough for the animal to slip in and out of the car.
4Make more train cars.
Make several train cars to accomodate all your animals. You can place 1 or 2 animals per car but take note to leave room on one of the cars for the train engine. In our train, the engine will be placed in the red car and the little penguin is driving.
5Prepare the train engine parts.
Cut out basic shapes from construction paper or cardstock to make the parts of the train engine: 2 rectangles, 1 square, 1 triangle, and 2 circles.
6Glue the train engine parts.
Unfold the train car. Glue the parts except the pair of circles.
7Glue the wheels.
Fold up the train engine along the crease. Glue the pair of circles along the bottom edge to create wheels.
8Glue wheels on all cars.
Cut out more circles and glue them in pairs at the base of each train car.
9Cut a long strip.
Cut out a ½ to ¾-inch wide strip of construction paper long enough to connect all your train cars.
Unfold the train engine car. Glue one end of the strip just above the crease and close to the car's rear edge.
10Connect the next car.
Unfold the next car and glue it along the strip, leaving about a ½-inch distance from the first car. Just like the first car, the strip should be glued just above the car's crease.
11Connect all cars.
Glue the rest of the cars along the strip, making sure to position it above the crease.
12Glue the sides of each car.
Apply glue along the right and left sides of each train car.
Fold up the car along the crease. Press on the glued edges. Do this for all train cars, including the train engine car.
13Trim the excess length.
Cut the excess length of paper strip at the end of the last car.
14Decorate the train.
Your train looks awesome but you can further decorate it if you like. Glue some small shapes, put stickers, draw designs on it, or punch out shapes like I did.
15Place the animals on the train.
Finally, place the animals inside the train cars. The fun thing about having cars with slots or pockets is that the animals can be moved from one car to the next. You can also re-use the train or the animals for your future crafts and learning activities.
16Enjoy the animal train!
Tape the train on the wall or create a background picture for it. Check more fun crafting and learning ideas below.
More Ideas
Animal Learning
Use the train to learn more about animals. Assign one animal per car and let kids draw, cut out, or write things they learn about the animal. Slip these inside the animal's train car. You can install additional cars as kids learn about more animals. Here are some useful links to animal learning for kids:
Animal Habitats
Learn about habitats by taking the animals for a train adventure. Make a jungle, safari or other habitat background picture—this can be a group art activity as well. Unload the animals from the train and find out which of them live on trees, water or behind tall grasses.
