Sing Together: “The Wheels on the Train”

  • bumpy
  • smooth
  • surface
  • train
  • wheel

MA Standards:

English Language Arts/Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.1a: Observe and use appropriate ways of interacting in a group (e.g., taking turns in talking, listening to peers, waiting to speak until another person is finished talking, asking questions and waiting for an answer, gaining the floor in appropriate ways).

Head Start Outcomes:

Social Emotional Development/Self-Regulation: Follows simple rules, routines, and directions.
Language Development/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.

PreK Learning Guidelines:

English Language Arts/Language 1: Observe and use appropriate ways of interacting in a group (taking turns in talking; listening to peers; waiting until someone is finished; asking questions and waiting for an answer; gaining the floor in appropriate ways).
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 12: Listen to, recite, sing, and dramatize a variety of age-appropriate literature.

Sing Together: “The Wheels on the Train”

© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.

ELA Focus Skills: Gross Motor Skills, Phonological Awareness, Speaking and Listening, Vocabulary

  • Tell children you are going to sing a song with them. Explain that it is the same tune as “The Wheels on the Bus,” only this time you will sing about a train instead of a bus.
  • Ask children to tell you what they know about trains.
  • Encourage children to share a time they took a train ride or read a story about a train.
  • You might want to tell a story about a time you took a train ride.

Have children think about how the train moves along the tracks by asking questions such as,

  • Why do you think train tracks have a smooth surface?
  • What do you think might happen to the train cars if the tracks were bumpy?

Now sing the song with children and have them act out the motions with you.

The Wheels on the Train
(make two fists and roll them over one another)
The wheels on the train go round and round,
Round and round, round and round.
The wheels on the train go round and round,
Rolling down the tracks.

(step slowly drawing out each “chug”)
The engine on the train goes “Chug, chug, chug;
Chug, chug, chug; chug, chug, chug.”
The engine on the train goes “Chug, chug, chug,”
Rolling down the tracks.

(raise your hand and shake the bell)
The bell on the train goes “Ding, dong, ding;
Ding, dong, ding; ding, dong, ding.”
The bell on the train goes “Ding, dong, ding,”
Rolling down the tracks.

Adaptation: With very young children, sing the song and do the movements one line at a time, with one child at a time.

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