Daycare Lesson Plans on “The Little Engine That Could”

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By spending time exploring Daycare Lesson Plans on “The Little Engine That Could”, children will connect with the characters, learn important life lessons, and develop school readiness skills through engaging play-based learning. A timeless children’s story that teaches perseverance, positive thinking, and the value of hard work makes it an excellent choice for a daycare lesson plan.

For printable lesson plans for two weeks including the Oklahoma ELGs for the QRIS requirements, check out this listing on Etsy for Lesson Plans on the Little Engine that Could.

Story Introduction

I love to start every lesson plan unit with a book, and these whole plans based on books are the most fun! This book is a real classic that is fun and encouraging for kids to never give up. Begin the week by introducing the book “The Little Engine That Could” by Watty Piper. Show children the cover and ask what they think the story might be about.

As you read, stop to talk about the characters: the big engine, the little blue engine, the dolls, the clown, and the toys. Emphasize the phrase “I think I can” and talk about what it means to believe in yourself. After reading, ask the children to recall the different trains and what each one said. Explain the meaning of perseverance using simple language like “keep trying even when it’s hard.”

Fine Motor Skills

Shape trains: Help children create their own train using shapes. Provide construction paper, glue sticks, scissors, markers, and cotton balls. Cut out rectangles for the engine and squares or circles for wheels. Assist the younger children as needed, and encourage older preschoolers to try cutting and gluing independently.

Group train mural: Create a group mural by painting a large piece of butcher paper with a mountain in the middle. Let children paint tracks, clouds, sun, and trees. Each child can add their own paper train to the mural.

Train tracing: Offer a tracing activity by printing out dotted-line train shapes or letters from the phrase “I Think I Can.” This will help children strengthen their hand muscles and build pre-writing skills. Set up a playdough center with small train-shaped cookie cutters, rolling pins, and tools to encourage sensory exploration and creativity.

Movement and Gross Motor Fun

Train obstacle course: Reinforce the story through movement and gross motor play. Set up a train obstacle course using chairs for tunnels, pillows for hills, and taped lines for tracks. Encourage children to chant “I think I can” as they go through the course. Take the play outdoors and create a train line using chalk. Let the children pretend to be trains moving along the tracks while practicing balance and direction.

Train songs: Lead a movement song like “Down by the Station” or “Little Red Caboose.” Use scarves or rhythm sticks for added sensory fun. Set up a game where one child is the engine and the others are train cars. They link hands and follow the engine around the room. Switch leaders often so everyone gets a turn.

Train relay: Use toy trains for a fun relay game. Set up stations where children must carry their train, complete a small task like hopping or crawling, and then pass the train to the next child. This not only gets them moving but also builds teamwork and cooperation.

Social-Emotional Development and Dramatic Play

Dramatic play: Use puppets or props to retell the story. Encourage children to act out the roles of the different trains and the toys. Provide dress-up clothes like conductor hats, bandanas, and vests. Add cardboard boxes or large foam blocks to build trains, tracks, and mountains in the dramatic play area.

Talking about emotions: Use this activity to discuss emotions and kindness. Ask the children how the dolls and toys felt when the big engines said no. How did they feel when the little engine helped? Talk about helping others and how we can be kind even when things are difficult. Create a kindness train bulletin board. Cut out train cars and let each child decorate one with their name and a way they can help others (sharing toys, comforting a friend, cleaning up). Connect the cars into a long train on the wall labeled “The Kindness Express.”

Science and STEM Exploration

Science concepts: Introduce basic science concepts using trains and movement. Talk about how trains move, on wheels, along tracks, pulled by engines. Let children explore toy trains on ramps and different surfaces. Create a ramp using cardboard and test how far different trains or objects roll. Ask questions like “What happens if the ramp is steeper?” or “Which train rolls the farthest?”

Train math: Incorporate a counting and sorting activity using colored trains or train-themed manipulatives. Practice counting wheels, sorting by color or size, or creating simple AB patterns using train toys or pictures.

Train counting: Create a train counting station using toy trains or printed train cars. Number each car and encourage children to place them in order.

Literacy and Writing Centers

Train stories: Throughout the week, keep literacy centers open with train-themed materials. Add alphabet trains, matching games, and picture books like “Freight Train” by Donald Crews, “Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo” by Kevin Lewis, or “Steam Train, Dream Train” by Sherri Duskey Rinker.

Name trains: Add name trains to your word wall. Write each child’s name on a paper train engine and use them for letter recognition, beginning sound games, or name puzzles.

Snack Time and Cooking Fun

Train snacks: Bring the story into the kitchen with train-themed snacks. Use crackers, cheese cubes, and fruit to build snack trains on plates. Arrange banana slices and blueberries into wheels and tracks. Make a simple cooking activity by decorating graham crackers as train cars using icing and small toppings. Let children create their own edible train and talk about the parts of the train as they build.

I think I can snacks: You can also make “I think I can” trail mix by letting each child choose from a selection of ingredients like cereal, pretzels, raisins, and mini marshmallows. Let them scoop their chosen ingredients into a bag and label it with their name and the encouraging phrase “I think I can!”

Sensory Play Ideas

Train sensory bin: Set up a sensory bin with toy trains, black beans or dry rice for tracks, and construction paper mountains. Add scoops, tunnels, and ramps to encourage exploration. Provide small brushes and let children clean the trains in a water bin filled with soapy water.

Train sand: Use kinetic sand or cloud dough to build a small mountain and have children push toy trains over the top. Add cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice to the dough for a fall scent.

Snowy Train: Create a “snowy mountain” by filling a bin with cotton balls and letting children create a train journey over the hill. Encourage storytelling and imaginative play as they narrate their engine’s adventure.

At the end of the week, gather the children to revisit the story and reflect on what they learned. Reread “The Little Engine That Could” and ask children to tell you what happened in their own words. Ask what their favorite part was and how the story made them feel. Review the key phrase “I think I can” and ask children when they had to try hard to do something new.

Train Ride

Celebrate the week with a pretend train ride around the classroom. Set up chairs in rows, hand out tickets, and let the children take turns being the conductor, engineer, and passengers. Play train sounds and music while the train “travels” through all the things they learned about: mountains, kindness, perseverance, and friendship.

“The Little Engine That Could” is much more than a story about a train. It’s a powerful tale about never giving up, believing in yourself, and helping others. For young children in daycare, it offers the perfect platform to build foundational skills in literacy, math, science, social-emotional development, and creative expression. With engaging, age-appropriate activities tied to the story’s themes, this lesson plan brings the book to life and creates meaningful learning experiences that children will remember long after the week ends. Through songs, crafts, movement, and play, children internalize the powerful message of “I think I can,” building confidence in themselves and their abilities, one little engine at a time.

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