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Cakes
Train
Decorations
(I
think I can, I think I can)
Picking colors can be a bit tricky. If you’re doing a Thomas
the Tank Engine party, use predominantly blue, with a bit of red. For a
Polar
Express party, try red and green, or black and yellow. For a generic
train
party, use blue and white or black and silver.
Use chalk to draw a
railroad crossing sign in front of your
driveway (It’s a big X with an R on either side).
Make your own
railroad crossing arms for a road, or sidewalk.
Wrap a long tube (gift wrap or shipping container) with red and white
streamers
for the crossing arm and attach it to a lamp post or fence post.
Complete it
with a railroad crossing sign made on cardboard (a yellow circle with a
big X
and an R on either side).
Use a lantern as a
centerpiece for your table.
Make
train tracks on the wall or across the table with construction paper
ties and
black electrical tape rails. Print out this train birthday banner and hang it up.
Put lots of trains
everywhere. It wouldn't be a train party without them.
Costumes/Dress
up
Bandanas
Engineer’s
cap—If you can’t find one, draw thin blue or
black lines on some white baseball caps to resemble an engineer’s cap
Costumes/Dress
up
Bandanas
Engineer’s
cap—If you can’t find one, draw thin blue or
black lines on some white baseball caps to resemble an engineer’s cap
Games
and Activities (Tickets,
please)
Train Bean Bag Toss
(ages 3-8)
Draw a train engine on the side of a large cardboard box and
cut three holes in it (either in the windows or in the steam coming
from the
funnel. Have the guests take turns standing a certain distance from the
engine
and try to toss three bean bags, or three soft balls, in the
holes.
Chug,
Chug, Chug
Around (ages 3-8)
Have the guests join into a long line, placing their hands
on the waist of the person in front of them, to form a train. For more
fun put
an engineer’s cap on the guest at the front of the line and give a bell
to the
guest at the end of the line, or the caboose. Then chug around the yard
or
house. Include a tunnel made of large cardboard boxes for the train to
go
through. Allow the guests to take turns being the engine and the
caboose.
Smallest guests enjoy this train party game best.
Train
Track Race
(ages 3-12)
Run a race along train tracks – drawn with chalk on the
sidewalk or lay down railroad ties made of construction paper and line
with
streamers for the tracks or line with black electrical tape for the
tracks.
Engineer
Dress Relay
(ages 3-10)
Split the guests into two teams. Have the teams line up and,
one at a time, race across the room to dress like the engineer
(oversized
jeans, bandana and cap) or conductor (suit coat/jacket, hat and
gloves). You
will need two similar piles of clothes for this. After one person has
dressed,
and undressed, in the outfits, they run back to their team and the next
one in
line gets to get dressed.
Coal Box Relay Race
(ages 3-10)
Split the guests into two teams. Their goal is to fill the
coal box first. Have a container filled with coal (cotton balls spray
painted
black or rolled up black socks). Team members should take turns using a
shovel,
or a bowl or a cup, to scoop up some coal, and run it across the room
to a coal
box. Then run back and give the scooper to the next member of the team.
Continue until the coal box is full.
Whistle
Contest
(ages 3-16)
How could it be a train party without a train whistle?
Discover who can whistle the loudest, OR who can best imitate the sound
of a
train whistle? Younger guests don’t need to actually whistle, but can
make a
loud noise. You might require older guests to actually whistle.
Funnel
Bubbles
(ages 4-8)
Blow bubbles out of your train funnel – paper towel roll or
toilet paper tube. Provide each guest with a bottle of bubbles, a wand,
and a
toilet paper tube. Instruct them to try to blow bubbles through the
tube. It’s
fun to try, but it won’t take long before everyone has abandoned their
funnels
and are just blowing bubbles—or popping them.
Baggage
Handler Game
(ages 5-16)
Play this as a relay game. Make two or more piles of luggage
of similar items, boxes, bags, suitcases, etc. Leave all of them empty.
Split
the guests into teams and have each team move the luggage from the
pile, onto a
chair (pretend it’s a luggage rack) and scoot the chair over to the
train (a
couch) and load the luggage on the train. The next guest should unload
the
luggage from the train, to the luggage rack, and back to the passengers
(party
guests).
Engineer
Dress Relay
and Coal Box Relay (ages 6-10)
This is an awesome train party game, or two games. Combine the games, Engineer Dress Relay
and Coal Box Relay.
Have the guests dress as an engineer, then scoop up the coal and put it
in the
box. Then undress before heading back to their team for the next guest
to try
the task.
Round
Trip Train Relay
(ages 7-16)
The wheels on a train move together. This fun train party
game will help the guests walk together. Before the party make 4
walking
boards. You really only need 4 pieces of 2x4 that are about 4 feet
long, each.
Loop two pieces of rope around each board, one at the front and one in
the
middle. The rope should be long enough for a guest to stand on the
board and
hold on to the rope.
To play this train relay
race game divide the guests into
two teams and have each team split into pairs. Then one pair of guests
stands
on their walking boards, both their left feet on one board and both
their right
feet on the other board. Then they hold on to their ropes and walk in
unison,
with the boards, a short distance, around a chair and back again. This
can be
trickier than it seems. When they return to their team the next pair
gets on
the walking boards to make the round trip. Now it’s a real train party!
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