Kid Science - Train Books

My son loves trains and loves books, so not only have we been to every train ride and exhibit in the surrounding area, we also have a full library of train related books.

Here are some of our favorites, based on accuracy and detail of trains, engines and steam power.

1. Locomotive by Brian Floca, Caldecott medal winner. There are a lot of words, but is written with a nice cadence and my son has already memorized half of it.  Highly recommend this book. 
2. Steam, Smoke, and Steel: Back in Time with Trains by Patrick O’Brien - my favorite part is that one of the engineers is a woman. Can spark discussions about history and family trees.
3. Little Train by Lois Lenski - classic basic storyline about what the engineer, fireman and conductor do and points out key parts of the engine
4. Big Book of Trains by DK Publishing - we love all the big books by DK Publishing.  Very informative and detailed.
5. Trains - Eye Openers Series - Includes pictures of model trains and specific parts to find on each one.  (also DK book).
6.  My Big Train Book - Priddy Books board book;  Priddy Books usually have great close up pictures of real objects that are good for pre-readers
7. Snapshot Picture Library Trains - another series with real photographs and not too many words.
8. Terrific Trains (Amazing Machines) by Tony Mitton - Actually have not read this, but really like the Tremendous Tractors in the same series.  It not only rhymes, but describes what the different tractors do.

Some other favorite train classics with good visuals and/or stories:

1. Freight Train by Donald Crews - CLASSIC visuals for all ages
2. Steam train, Dream Train by Tom Lichtenheld - My son really liked the pictures of the animals loading the train.
3. Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Kevin Lewis - we also really like his Tugga Tugga Tugboat boat book.
4. Crack in the Track (Thomas the Tank Engine Story) - let's be honest, any Thomas books. 
5. The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper - Classic
6. The little red caboose Golden Book - Old school, but classic

Others that are next on our list:

1. Polar Express by Chris van Allsburg
2. Smokey by Bill Peet;  the Caboose Who got Loose was cute, but not our favorite. 
3. The Goodnight Train by June Sobel
4. The Potty Train by David Hochman
5. Dinosaur Train by John Steven Gurney

Any other suggestions?

Chapter Books for Preschoolers

Here are a few books that we have tried reading to our preschooler. Most of them have some basic black & white drawings within the chapters to keep them interested every couple pages, but most of the pages are just words.  I like reading several chapters before bedtime because it allows my children to close their eyes if they want and think about the images and story.

Charlotte's Web (E. B. White) - I was concerned that this would be too deep, especially because it deals with death at the end, but my son enjoyed the story and seemed to understand the plot matter of factly. 

Mouse and the Motorcycle;  Ralph S. Mouse (Beverly Cleary) - Talking mouse, motorcycles and cars, a young boys dream.

Rabbit Hill (Robert Lawson, Newbury Award Winner) - More talking animals and a clear moral message at the end.

The Littles (several books);  (John Peterson) - They are not mice, but tiny people with tails living in the walls.  Clever stories.

Stuart Little (E. B. White) - Another talking mouse that gets adopted by a human family.  He gets to drive a car and a boat.

The Adventures of Raggedy Ann & Andy.  (Johnny Gruelle) - short chapters and good lessons;  kept engagement with some pictures.

Little House on the Prairie  (Laura Ingalls Wilder) - I thought these would be above his head, but the stories are exciting, especially when there are wild animals and native Americans.

Boxcar Children series (Gertrude Chandler Warner) - a little old school, but fast paced entertaining stories about 4 orphans having adventures. 

The Magic Treehouse series (Mary Pope Osborne) - We read the first one about going to a land of dinosaurs.  It was fun.

Amelia Bedelia (Peggy Parish) - very short and can be read in one evening.

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle (Betty MacDonald) - a little silly, but a good passive way to discuss proper behavior. 

ABC Mysteries (Ron Roy) - entertaining, simple mysteries. Still a little young to get the concept (ex kidnapping) and solve the puzzles. 

The Turret (Margery Sharp) - I expected this to be a little faster moving, since it involved characters from the Rescuers (rescue aid society mice). The language was very grandiose for this age.

Winnie-The-Pooh;  The House on Pooh Corner (A.A. Milne) - a little slow at first, but may pick up once we get into the characters. 

Any other suggestions?

Preschool Presentation - I am an Engineer

It is women's history month and what better way to celebrate women than by sharing your story with your kids...as well as their friends.  My son is only in preschool, but I wanted to start making an impression on him and his friends early so I volunteered to talk about my job at his preschool.  Luckily, it was not the same day as the firefighter, but hopefully they took away something from the activity.

Using the Tech Bridge kids presentation model (Tech Bridge organizes science and engineering activities for girls.  Check out their website http://www.techbridgegirls.org), I organized my presentation into 4 parts:

1.  Ice Breaker

2.  Introduce yourself

3.  Activity

4.  Wrap up

Tech Bridge focuses on school age girls, but this model can be used for all ages (including college), with appropriate activities.

I started the kids in a circle.

1.  For the Ice Breaker we went around the circle and shared our name and favorite thing to make.  I went first to give them an idea.  "I like to make cookies."

2.  I brought a couple printed slides with pictures of different things engineers build and work on.  I also printed some key words in big letters.  Most of the kids can not read, but they do recognize letters.  Here is a sample of the introduction:

"I am an ENGINEER.

Engineers design and build things.  

Some engineers design Buildings.

Some engineers design Machines.

Some engineers design computer programs.

Engineers solve problems. 

I work on machines that make things, like soap, bottles and food, that you can buy at the store.

I help solve problems to make the machinery run faster and better. 

When things like food are made in a FACTORY, that is called MANUFACTURING.

In a food factory, we use materials & ingredients to make something that is then sent to a store for you to buy. "

3.  For the activity, we set up an assembly line to make snack mix.  I assigned each student to a job along the assembly line.  After explaining the roles, we spread the kids out along a table and the "packers" donned hair nets and gloves.  When I said "go," the Delivery team brought the box of supplies to the table, the Unpackers took the materials out and spread them along the table.  The Bag leaders opened zipper snack bags and passed them to the first station.  The Cheerios leaders put a scoop of Cheerios in the bag and passed it along.  The Goldfish leaders put a scoop of Goldfish in the bag and passed it.  The Pretzels leader put a handful of pretzels in and passed the bag.  The Bag Sealer sealed the bag and put it in a box.  When the box had a few bags, the Store Delivery team put one bag in each cubby.

I have to admit, it was a little hectic and some kids sampled the snacks before the bag was closed (including my son), but in the end we successfully made enough snack bags for each child to take home.

4.  Finally we wrapped up back in a circle and talked about how things are made or MANUFACTURED in a FACTORY.

Materials come in the FACTORY - >

they are Processed ->

They are Packaged ->

And then they are shipped to the grocery store.

Do not be afraid to share what you do with your kids early and often.  I want my kids to declare proudly "My Mom's an Engineer."