December is a rough month for kindergartners. They are excited about the upcoming winter holidays and they are overstimulated by sugar and holiday activities. One way you can help to refocus your students on something constructive is to have them complete toy train table projects.
The first activity that you can do with your students is to have them build mini-toy train tables. Have your students create toy train table plans. This can be done by you scaling down a full sized toy train table plan and printing them out on cardstock. Then the students can decorate the pieces, cut them out and assemble cardstock tables.
Another activity that you can do as a class is to build a toy train table for the classroom. You can have parents donate the lumber and tools. Have all of the pieces cut out and predrilled. Then students can work together and follow the instructions to assemble the table. They can then paint and decorate the table as a class holiday project.
The final project is to decorate an existing toy train table for the holiday season. If you are working in a public school you will need to stay away from references to religious holidays. However, you can focus on winter characters like snowmen, snowflakes and other non-religious symbols. Students can build 3D models for the table of snowmen, sleds and trees covered in snow. This is a fun project that can be worked into a lesson plan on following directions, cutting with scissors or coloring.
