At the end of November, many of our toddlers had the opportunity to go see the Holiday Train with their families. The following day, there was noticeable excitement as the children eagerly talked about “trains,” “lights,” and “music.” This interest continued throughout the month of December and was further explored within the classroom environment.
To support this interest, the educators painted a border around the art wall and invited the children to engage in open-ended painting. Educator Jess said it looked like the holiday train and the toddlers agreed! Inside the classroom, the toddlers are often making trains out of chairs. They line them up in rows and sit on them, chugging their arms up and down and shouting, “Choo choo!” The children often notice the train out the classroom window and often run over with excitement to watch it go by. Another day in December, we found the toddlers had climbed onto the snow wall outside and made it into a train. “All aboard!” They called, inviting everyone to join them on the train. The train was making lots of stops, including “a new house” and “the grocery store.”
While engaging in so much pretend play with trains, the toddlers are really developing their imaginations and creativity. They are connecting their real-life experiences to their play, thus making sense of their reality. Pretend play is wonderful for toddlers’ developing inquiry skills, as it allows them to develop an understanding of the world around them in a physical and hands on way.
Perhaps the toddlers would enjoy exploring trains on a smaller scale, with our small trains and train tracks? We wonder where our learning and interest in trains will take us next!
