Train Birthday Party Ideas
Perfect for
Toddlers and Younger Kids
These train birthday party ideas are brilliant
Perfect for the little engine driver in your life!
Many toddlers love trains and Thomas the Tank Engine from the popular books and tv series is a particular favourite.
All the ideas below are easy to do and great fun. Perfect for train-mad toddlers and slightly younger children.
Train Birthday Party Invitations
For younger children you do not have to be too sophisticated with this.
Your invites should simply have a nice picture of a train on them.
If you are crafty it is quite easy to make cut-out invitations where you have to open the engine shed door to find the party details.
Or you could have a picture of a train with the train party details written along the sides of the carriages and trucks.
Train Birthday Party Decorations
There are all sorts of posters and train party decorations available from party stores.
It is also easy to make your own.
Download and print railway pictures and stick them around your venue.
Train cut outs / silhouettes can be made from construction paper and stuck to the walls.
You may like to make your party venue a mock railway station with signs to the ticket office etc.
Train Birthday Party Games
Many traditional kids party games can easily be given a train makeover.
Its all about having some fun and using your imagination.
Train Birthday Party Ideas - Engine Shed Corners
~Who will find themselves in the lucky engine shed?~
This is a simple but fun way to start your train party.
What you need:
- 4 Pictures of trains. These should be different colours. Alternatively they could be four characters from Thomas The Tank Engine. You need 2 pictures of each train. A4 size pictures printed on card are perfect.
One of each of the 4 posters is put on the wall in the four corners of your party venue. You could also put them on the backs of chairs positioned in a square in the middle of the room.
The children are trains and puff about in the middle of the room. When you - The Station Master / Guard / Fat Controller (for Thomas fans) blow your whistle all the trains have to go to one of the engine sheds for the night. For young children Mum can be a train and go too of course.
You then select one of the 4 remaining train pictures and hold it up. Any trains that chose the right engine shed win a small sweet.
Then all the trains go back in the middle and you repeat the whole thing.
Don't think this is too simple, young kids like games they understand. We guarantee this will be a winner!
Train Birthday Party Ideas - Chuffer Challenge
~Who will win this exciting train race?~
What you need:
- Shoe boxes or larger plastic sandwich boxes
- Train pictures
- String
- Soft toys to be passengers or wooden blocks to be goods
In advance make up some simple trains. You can see from this picture that this is not difficult. You can easily find and download good pictures from the internet. Cut them out and turn your boxes into trains.
Attach a long string to the front of each one.
The trains are positioned at one end of the room. the children have to then run and load either their passengers or goods.
They then run back and use the string to quickly haul their train towards them.
The first across a certain line wins
Organise your races with as many kids as you have trains.
You could set up a little knock out competition but may prefer just to let everyone have a few goes for fun.
Extra: You may like to prepare bank sheets or sheets to be coloured in as an activity for when the children first arrive. A quick bit of adult help with a stapler and these are then used to make up your trains.
Train Birthday Party Ideas - Seats On The Train
~Rush hour madness~
This is a train version of musical chairs.
Arrange chairs or cushion in twos as if on a train carriage. For ease it might be easier to have them all in a line of pairs facing toward one end of the room. The very first seat is a single for the engine driver.
The kids run around the outside of the train carriage in time to some suitable train themed music or they could puff around like steam trains.
When the music stops and on your whistle they have to find a seat on the busy train.
After a few practice goes anyone who can't find a seat is out.
Remove a seat each time until there is only the engine driver left.
Train Birthday Party Ideas - Engine Sheds
~Will your train find somewhere to spend the night?~
This is another train party variation on musical chairs
What you need:
- An A4 size picture of an engine shed (download and print from the internet) for each child
The pictures are stuck to the floor with tape or blue tack.
The young trains puff about while suitable music plays. But when the music stops and the Guards blows his whistle they have to jump onto an engine shed.
After a few practise tries remove an engine shed each time. The train who can't find a shed is out.
Continue until one train remains.
Variation - small mats or carpet tiles (ask for old samples in carpet stores) also make neat little engine sheds
Train Birthday Party Ideas - Train Driver Training
~Will you pass the train driver test~
This is another simple game that young kids love. Its even more fun if Mum and Dad join in too.
Everyone is a train driver. Line your trains up in lines with a bit of space between them so everyone has plenty of room.
You are the trainer and standing at the front are going to call out a series of actions for the trainee drivers to practise. Show them the actions for each call in advance or guide them as you call each one.
If you run through once as a practice the second time is usually a lot better.
Here are some good calls but you can make your own up too:
- Full steam ahead - Everyone stands on the spot, moving their arms like pistons puffing
- Up the hill - Everyone puffs long and hard as they struggle tot he top of the hill
- Down the other side - Nice quick puffs as you come down the hill again.
- Sound the whistle - Pull an imaginary whistle, train driver fashion, and shout "Whoooo Whooooo!"
- On the turntable - Everyone turns right round in a slow circle
- Reverse into the siding - Everyone reverses their puffing arms and slowly reverses backwards and round at right angles
- Back on the main line - Pull out of the siding and back to full steam ahead
- Cow on the line - Everyone makes cow horns with their fingers and shouts "Moooo!"
- Around the track - Everyone runs to the outside of the room and puffs right the way round before running back to their place in the middle
- Stop at the station - Everyone stops with a lot of puffing.
- All aboard - Off you go again puffing slowly away
- Over the rickety bridge - The trains bump over the imaginary rickety bridge.
- Stop for lunch - Everyone comes to a halt again
- Eat your sandwiches - All the drivers tuck in to an imaginary lunch
- Into the engine shed - All the engines move and huddle together
- Close the doors - Everyone pretends to close the doors to the shed
- Goodnight engines - Everyone snores
Train Birthday Party Ideas - The Puffing Chuffer Song~A special train-tastic finale for your train birthday party!~This really is a train version of the party favourite The Hokey Kokey.
Its a great way to end your train party
Get all the kids and parents in a circle facing inwards
They are all little train engines
The song goes:
You put your front wheels in
everyone jumps their front wheels in
Your front wheels out
everyone jumps their wheels back out
In - Out - In - Out
continue to jump in and out in time
And shake them all about
everyone shakes their imaginary wheels
You pull your engine's whistle
everyone mimes pulling a train whistle
And you shout Whooo-Whooo!"
Thats what its all about!
Chorus
Oh do the Puffing Chuffer
everyone puffs into the middle and back
Oh do the Puffing Chuffer
everyone puffs into the middlle and back
Oh do the Puffing Chuffer
everyone puffs into the middle and back
Jump on board
everyone mimes jumping on the train
Slam the door
everyone mimes slamming a cariage door
Puff Puff Puff!
Other verses:
You put your back wheels in
everyone turns around and jumps their back wheels in
You put your buffers in
everyone puts in their two fists held like train buffers in
You put your funnel / smokestack in
everyone puts their nose in
(Last verse can be shouted)
You put the whole train in
everyone takes a big jump in for the whole train
The whole train out
everyone jumps back out
In - Out - In - Out
continue to jump in and out in time
And shake them all about
everyone shakes their entire train bodies
You pull your engines whistle
everyone mimes pulling a train whistle
And you shout "Whooo-Whooo!"
That's what its all about!
Chorus
Oh do the Puffing Chuffer
everyone puffs into the middlle and back
Oh do the Puffing Chuffer
everyone puffs into the middlle and back
Oh do the Puffing Chuffer
everyone puffs into the middlle and back
Jump on board
everyone mimes jumping on the train
Slam the door
everyone mines slamming a cariage door
Puff Puff Puff!
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