How to Make a Train Out of Boxes

Assemble the boxes if they aren't already assembled. The boxes should be on their sides so that they resemble boxcars. Cut off the "tops" of these boxcars so that passengers can be placed in the boxes. Stuffed animals make good passengers.

Paint your boxes to look like railroad cars. For a passenger train, paint a row of windows that run horizontally across the upper half of the box, a stripe underneath the windows, a door at each end of the box, and a railroad logo somewhere on each box. For the engine, paint a triangular shape on the front of the box that mimics the train's cowcatcher guard and a circle above that.

Cut circles out of a scratch piece of cardboard. These circle should all be the same size. After you cut the first circle, use it as a pattern, outlining it onto the cardboard and then cutting along that outline. You'll need at least four for each car of your train.

Paint these circles so that the resemble wheels. Glue them onto the bottom of the each train car so that half of each wheel adheres to the box and the other half of the wheel extends below the bottom of the box.

Punch a hole in the rear of the box that is the engine, and in every other box, punch a hole in the front and rear. These holes should be punched with the scissors near where bottom of the box.

Tie a knot in the end of piece of yarn. This knot should be bigger than the punched hole. Then run the untied end through the hole from the inside of the box so that the knot settles against the inside of the box, and then, run the untied end of the yarn through a hole in the next boxes, similarly tying a knot on the inside of the box that is larger than the punched hole.

Connect each box of the train the same way. The yarn should hitch each box to the next.

Cut out the bottom of the engine if your child would like to get inside the box to "drive" the train. Fill the train with any toy passengers and you're ready for the play to begin.