Introduction Kindergarten Grades One and Two   Lesson One     Experience One     Experience Two     Experience Three   Lesson Two   Lesson Three Grades Three and Four Online Games and Activities Culminating Experience Train Glossary National Standards		Grades One and Two: Lesson One - Experience One Trainspiration! >> Resources How do trains spark our imaginations? Why do trains inspire us? Perhaps it is because they remind us of the romance and excitement of travel. Their speed and power touch our emotions. When we see a huge engine pulling many pieces of a train in unison we experience the poetry of motion and we hear the music of the rails. It is no wonder trains have influenced the way we express ourselves. They have inspired stories, legends, art, songs and poems since the time they were invented. Train Speak - How have trains influenced the words we use? Students explore the ways that trains have become part of our language as they learn the functions of different parts of a train along with train vocabulary and expressions. Objectives: Experience One will enable students to Distinguish between freight and passenger trains. Explain the purposes of different kinds of cars on a train. Use train-related words and expressions in writing activities. Improve word-recognition and writing skills. Reflect upon what they have learned and record new ideas in their journals. You will need... Materials: Visual 1: Freight Train and Visual 2: Passenger Train, card stock, construction paper Time: Two to three 30-minute periods Words: More powerful than a locomotive... Locomotive or Engine Passenger train - passenger car, baggage car, dining car, dome car Freight train - boxcar, refrigerator car, tank car, flatcar, gondola car, caboose Focus Questions: Use these questions to help students focus on the key ideas in Experience One. What is a locomotive or engine? What does it do? What is the difference between a freight train and a passenger train? What do different types of train cars carry? Word Train Indiana's Academic Standards: Grade One: Language Arts Standard 1: Reading-Word Recognition (1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3); Standard 5: Writing Applications (1.5.4). Grade Two: Language Arts Standard 1: Reading-Word Recognition (2.1.3); Standard 5: Writing Applications (2.5.5). Procedures: Day One: After reading Train Song or another story, ask students to think of as many train-related words as they can. Make a list on the chalkboard. Use the Freight Train and Passenger Train visuals to help identify different types of trains and train cars. Add these words to the chalk-board list. Help students match the oral form of the word to its printed form and sound out words with more than one syllable. Day Two: Discuss word meanings and ask students to suggest sentences about trains using the words. Write several of the sentences on the chalkboard. Help students recognize that sentences start with capital letters and end with punctuation. Ask students: How is a sentence like a "train of words"? Discuss the characteristics of a complete sentence. Ask students how each of the sentences can be made more descriptive. Add student suggestions for descriptive words to the sentences. Divide students into teams of three or four to play Word Train. Assessment: Prior to the game, the teacher should copy selected sentences from the chalkboard on strips of card stock and cut the sentence strips into pieces with one word on each piece. Give each team the pieces of one sentence strip. The goal of each team is to reassemble the sentence strip into a "word train" making a complete sentence. Performance Criteria: Each team should assemble a sentence that uses train vocabulary and descriptive words. The sentence should be complete and should start with a capital letter and end with appropriate punctuation. Train of Thought Journal: Help students begin their journals by using construction paper to make the front and back covers and a first page. On this page students can copy the sentence that they like the best from the chalkboard or use the train vocabulary and descriptive words they have learned to create their own "word train." Some students may want to illustrate the sentence with a matching drawing. Ask students to think about how they could write more descriptive sentences. What would they need to know about trains? How would they start to investigate? Tips for the Teacher: Experience One allows students to identify the sounds of train words. Example: Help students think of words that rhyme with words like box (ox, fox) and car (far, star, bar). Students may want to experiment with rhyming words, listen to rhymes and poems or create their own rhymes. There is also a mystery to solve. Students may notice that the caboose is often missing from the trains we see today. What happened to the caboose? As students explore further in the unit, they will find out. Bonus - Extending Experiences: Cover a shoebox with brown paper or poster paints and decorate it like a boxcar with a flap cut in one side for the door. (A box without a top could be a gondola car.) Ask students to write or draw their favorite train word on a small piece of paper and place it in the box. Draw words and expressions from the box periodically and ask students to explain their meaning. This can be an ongoing game as the unit continues and students learn more words. Students may want to bring shoeboxes from home to make boxcars for their own "carload" of words. Have students write or draw a "train of events" for the things that happen in a typical day at school or home. Students may be interested in exploring the ways we communicate with people operating trains and how people on trains communicate with each other, including signs, hand signals, lanterns, telegraph, electrical signals and computers.