Paint a large number 1 to 9 on the front of a Tabard and a carriage window on the reverse, for each child to wear.
Start by looking at a toy train with numbered carriages.

• How many carriages do you think this train has?
• Let’s find out how many carriages there are by counting aloud together.
• Who has been on a train journey before?

Explain that we are all going to go on a train journey, but first we need some carriages to make our train. Help the
children put on a Tabard to become a carriage. In a large open space, ask the children to find a space.

What number is your carriage? Can you make a "choo choo" noise that number of times?

• What number carriage needs to go at the front of the train?

Ask the children wearing carriage 1 to make a ch,ch,ch,ch, noise whilst moving to the front of the station.

• What number carriage should come next?

Ask the children wearing carriage 2 to make a ch,ch,ch,ch, noise whilst travelling to stand next to the
carriage numbered 1.

Repeat until all the carriages from 1 to 9 are in order. There should now be several ‘trains’ ready to go on a
journey, moving around the open space whilst making a ch,ch,ch,ch, noise.

• Where is your train going today?

Meeting curriculum requirements:

The children will be learning to recognise numerals 1 to 9, recite the number names and order a given set of
numbers. They will be given the opportunity to estimate a number in the range that can be counted reliably,
then checked by counting as well as count reliably in other contexts by making sounds (to represent their
carriage number for example).

Tips for Painting:

Paint the numbers and carriage windows boldly and in bright colours

Useful Reference:

Find posters and pictures of trains. Read The Train Ride by June Crebbin. Listen to the sound of a train
or trains at a station, on a ‘Transport sounds’ CD.

What you will need:

What you will need: Tabards, brushes, paints or water based markers, small toy train with
numbered carriages.

Activity 0008 Adding up people