Montessori-Inspired Train Activities with Spielgaben {Free Printables}

My 22-month-old granddaughter is obsessed with trains right now. I didn’t have any train activities, so I decided it was time to create some. I was able to quickly prepare some great educational train activities using Spielgaben educational toys and free printables.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Spielgaben. All opinions are honest and my own. This post also contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).

Spielgaben, Version 4

Cabinet for Spielgaben Version 4

In case you’re not familiar with Spielgaben toys, they are exceptionally high-quality educational toys designed for ages 3-12. You can see from the photo that the cabinet is very high quality and fits in well in a room with traditional Montessori materials. I love the new, easily removable drawers in version 4. The yarn balls from the 1st Spielgaben set can be used with babies and toddlers, too.

The Spielgaben complete set comes with over 700 pages of full-color printed learning materials. These printed materials help you as a parent or teacher easily use Spielgaben toys educationally with your child and/or students.

Spielgaben Materials Used in the Train Activities

For these activities, I used the yarn balls from Spielgaben set #1, cubes from Spielgaben set #3, and  wooden dots (points) from Spielgaben set #10. Note: The yarn balls are fine for babies and toddlers. The cubes and wooden dots should only be used with ages 3 and older unless your toddler no longer mouths objects or you are constantly supervising your toddler during an activity using the materials.

Color Matching with Trains and Yarn Balls

Color Matching with Trains and Yarn Balls

For the color matching activities, I didn’t use free printables. I used two printables that came with my Spielgaben sets. They’re both from the Worksheet Set 1, just different editions. (Note: the brown train printable is from Version 1, and it’s been discontinued). All the activities here use Multicraft trays.

Matching Color Trains with Yarn Balls at 22 Months

For the layouts, Zoey used a Montessori Services small work rug.

Yarn Ball Matching with Color-Number Train

Pattern Trains

Pattern Trains Tray

Number Train 1-7

Number Train Transfer Activity

This number train activity can be used for toddlers who don’t mouth objects or preschoolers. It uses the free number train printable (printed at 45%) from Bubbles and Bobbins.  For preschoolers, I included a Montessori Services toast tong for the wooden dot transfer. For toddlers, I recommend using fingers alone, which makes a great fine-motor activity, too. Instead of a toast tong, I also like adding quick sticks to an activity like this to include a practical life transferring activity with the wooden dots.   I used the natural wood color to make the dots look like logs (maybe?). I have a second container ready to rotate with red wooden dots to look like barrels (maybe?). But whatever the dots represent, it’s an activity Zoey should love. (She hasn’t seen this one yet.)

Number Trains for Counting, Skip Counting, or Odd and Even

Number Trains Tray

The free number trains printable from 123 Homeschool 4 Me is very cool. You can use it for toddlers through 1st graders.  Here are the suggested uses and levels from 123 Homeschool 4 Me.

• Counting 10- (PreK)

• Counting 1-20 (PreK/K)

• counting 1-30 (K)

• Counting 1-50 (K/1st)

• Counting 1-100 (1st)

• Counting by 2s (1-10 K / 1-100 1st)

• Counting by 5s (1-50 K /1 –100 1st)

• Counting by 10s (1-50 K /1 –100 1st)

• Odd Numbers (1st)

• Even Numbers (1st)

Counting the Number Train at 22 Months

For Zoey, I printed out the train cars 1-10. I used the activity for one-to-one correspondence, where she placed one wooden cube on each train car. Then she counted the cubes. An older child could use the Spielgaben wooden dots for the skip counting activities or odd and even activities.

With these printables alone, I’ll probably keep Zoey train-happy for quite awhile. (But I found too many awesome printables to stop here. I’ll be coming up with some more activities. I’ll just save those for a later time.)

Note: Here’s the link to my favorite laminator … inexpensive and great for almost any activity that needs to be laminated!

UPDATE:

All My Spielgaben Posts

Many of these include links to free printables! (Click on an image to go to the related blog post. The gallery is ordered according to publication date with my latest post at the top.)

Version 4 of Spielgaben Educational Toys 

I highly recommend Spielgaben as an amazing educational material for home or school. Even though the toys aren’t inexpensive, they’re definitely worth the price because of the high quality of materials and number of years your children or students can use them.

Spielgaben Version 4

Special deal for my readers!