Following the Southeastern Railway Museum’s Second Thursday monthly preschool program, education editor Ruth Hummel shares a kid-friendly recap of the program on the blog every month.
April’s Second Thursday featured Subways, a new topic for our enthusiastic preschoolers.
Each month, children rotate through five stations.
For the craft station, the children constructed their own subway tunnel (complete with a subway train going through it) out of craft paper and crayons. They learned that MARTA trains go underground through the Greater Atlanta area.
During the activity, the preschoolers took turns holding a flashlight and crawling through tunnels (tubes) like a subway train. They received a souvenir subway token when they finished and even practiced going through the tunnel together as multi-car train!
The subway station bean bag game brought miles of smiles to the children who tried to toss their bean bags from the “Doraville station” to the “Five Points station.” When the bean bag landed on the station sign, they advanced to the next station until they reached their final destination at the Five Points station.
The model layout in the Exhibit Hall brought out the kid in everybody, not just the preschoolers. The display showed how the trains go through tunnels shining a headlight, similar to the subway trains that are mainly underground. The participants followed the engine’s light through the tunnels as the trains meandered down the tracks in the tiny town on the layout.
The Atlanta Airport subway train in building 2 was the featured transportation item for April. The children were shown that the automated people mover train car is guided by the “rails” but the wheels make it move. It is an automatic, computerized vehicle without an engineer to operate it. These vehicles travel underground at the airport and take passengers to the different buildings to catch their planes.
April’s 2nd Thursday had super subway activities that brought smiles to the children who participated.
Next month, get on board for May’s Second Thursday program when the preschoolers will learn about miniature trains. There will be “mini” activities for the children to participate in and hopefully bring “mini” happy faces.
Ruth Hummel
Education Editor
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