Review of Old Tracks, New Tricks– Children’s Book about Trains

Get the whole free download here!  I have a fun book to share with you today.  Innovation Press sent me a free copy of Old Tracks, New Tricks to review. I selected to receive this book because it looked cute and I thought my 3 year old son would really like it even if it was too young for my classes.  I think this book would be most appropriate for Pre-K to grade 2.

The book is adorable and so creative!  My son really likes the book as well, because he is very interested in trains.  You can click on this link to read a preview.

I loved the way the author used “anthropomorphism” to make the train tracks come alive.  The photos are engaging and delightful.  The author gives activities and train track challenges at the end of the book to encourage kids to come up with new ways to play with their trains.  If you already do a project related to trains, then this book would tie in already.  Earlier this year, I made Shape Trains with my kindergarten classes.

I came up with this silly activity to go along with this book.  Print out these train track scans and have your child decorate and make their own track character!  The high resolution download is available here:  Free Track Character Download

Here are a few examples of my silly train track characters.  Additional materials used:

Kwik Stix Solid Tempera Paint

Creativity Street Eyes Stickers

I have two more art project ideas based on this book to come soon.

Clip Art and Book Imagery used with express permission from Jessica Peterson and the Innovation Press.  This is not a sponsored post.  A free review copy was given to me.