Thomas the Train Games for Preschoolers

Trains on the Tracks

• Create several wearable boxcars by first gathering as many cardboard boxes as you have players. Cut out two sides of each square box using a utility knife. Tape the rest of the sides together so they remain intact. Attach two pieces of string to two opposite sides of the boxes so the children can wear the boxes over their shoulders. Decorate the boxes to look like trains. Gather all the kids to a starting point and have them wear their boxcars. When you say "Go," they must race each other to a finish line and back. Whoever gets to the line first wins.

Caboose on the Loose

• Pick one child to play the loose caboose. Select another to play the conductor. All the other children must form a single-file line behind the conductor and hold onto the shoulders of the players in front of them to make the train. Have the loose caboose count to 30 while the "train" heads away from him, led by the conductor. The loose caboose has to try and tag the last player in line to become the new conductor. Once this happens, the old conductor heads to the back of the line and the game starts again with a new "loose caboose."

All Aboard!

• Assemble enough chairs in a single-file line for every child, minus one. Gather the players around the chairs in a circle. Turn on some train music, using songs like "I've Been Working on the Railroad." Tell the children they have to move around the line of chairs in a circle, one after the other, until you stop the music at a random moment and shout, "All aboard!" The children must try and sit down in one of the chairs to stay in the game. Any child without a chair has to leave the game. Take a chair away after every round. The last child remaining wins the game.

Train Tunnel

• Divide the kids into two teams and line the teams up single-file with their legs spread out about hip-distance apart. When you blow your "conductor's whistle," the last player in line has to crawl through the "tunnel" of legs until he gets to the front of the line. As soon as the last player makes it to the front, the new last player has to do the same. The first team to return to its original line formation wins the game.