Skip to Content

Shoebox Train Craft for Kids

I made a little train craft with the kids this weekend that I wanted to share with you.  It’s a shoebox train that they can load up with stuffed animals and pull around the house.  So fun!

Make a train out of shoeboxes for the kids to pull around the house. Great craft for learning about trains!

We were inspired by the movie Locomotive, which is a video made from the award winning children’s book by Brian Floca.  (We received the movie for free, all opinions are my own.Locomotive is now available to watch instantly for FREE from participating libraries through a service called hoopla.  Too see if your local library offers hoopla, click the button that says “view map” at the bottom of their home page.  How neat is that?!  You don’t even have to leave your house to borrow the movie from the library!

Borrow Locomotive from your local library instantly through hoopla.

The movie is filled with beautiful illustrations from the book and gives a great history lesson to the kids about trains and the railroad.

Borrow Locomotive from your local library instantly through hoopla.

I even learned some new things!  My favorite fun fact from the movie:  It was rude to use the bathroom on the train when it was pulled into the station because there’s no holding tank.  Yep, that means what you think it means.  Haha.

Borrow Locomotive from your local library instantly through hoopla.

After watching the movie, the kids were SO excited to make their own train.  They pulled it around the house, dropping the stuffed animals off at different stations.  They even pretended that the animals were shoveling coal, which was something that they learned from the movie.

Make a train out of shoeboxes for the kids to pull around the house. Great craft for learning about trains!

To make your own shoebox train you will need:

  • 3 shoeboxes and 4 shoebox lids
  • toilet paper tube
  • packing tape
  • construction paper
  • a glue stick
  • scissors

Let’s get started with our train craft!

Take the lids from two of the shoeboxes and cut them like this.  The kids probably won’t be able to cut the windows, so you’ll have to help them out.  Make sure the pieces mirror each other since they will be going on opposite sides of the train.

IMG_1711

Tape the lids inside of one of the shoeboxes.

IMG_1714

Take two more shoebox lids and cut off all of the sides.

IMG_1712

Curve the lid pieces and tape them onto the shoebox like this.

IMG_1727

Tape a TP tube onto the front to make the smokestack.

Make a train out of shoeboxes for the kids to pull around the house. Great craft for learning about trains!

Glue pieces of construction paper all over the train.  Roll a piece of construction paper into a cone to put on top of the smokestack.

Make a train out of shoeboxes for the kids to pull around the house. Great craft for learning about trains!

Cut circles out of black construction paper and glue them on as the train wheels.  Poke small holes in the sides of the boxes and thread some pieces of string or rope through them.  Tie knots in the ends to keep them from slipping back through.  Put a string or rope on the front too, so the kids can pull it.

Make a train out of shoeboxes for the kids to pull around the house. Great craft for learning about trains!

All aboard!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Cindy deRosier

Thursday 17th of August 2017

I'm the Editor of Fun Family Crafts and wanted to let you know that we have featured your recycled train! You can see it here:

https://funfamilycrafts.com/shoebox-train-craft/

If you have other kid-friendly craft tutorials, we'd love for you to submit them. Thanks for a great project idea!

Jessica @ Cutesy Crafts

Thursday 17th of August 2017

Thanks for the feature! <3

Tanisha

Tuesday 26th of January 2016

Me and my 4 year old will do this for his project in school. It's very simple and it looks like a lot of fun for the family.

Jessica @ Cutesy Crafts

Tuesday 26th of January 2016

Glad you like it! My kids had a lot of fun with it.

Tori

Tuesday 14th of April 2015

My daughter and I are creating this with empty shoeboxes today, which is a perfect craft for our rainy day. Thank you so much. Blessings!

Lashawn

Monday 15th of December 2014

This is perfect for my little guys party!had the idea just needed to visually see it! Creative minds think alike!

Jessica @ Cutesy Crafts

Tuesday 16th of December 2014

How fun to use it for a party! :)

Anjana @ At The Corner Of Happy & Harried

Monday 8th of September 2014

Oh, how fun!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.