Teaching Heart's Polar Express Unit Theme
The Polar Express
For those that truly believe!!!!

Train Unit & Theme from Teaching Heart
Ideas, lessons, printables, games, party fun, and much more to match the story!!!

Updated - Nov. 2012

by Chris Van Allsburgh (Houghton Mifflin 1985)

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This is one of my favorite books. I read it to my class every year. It is a book that makes you feel the magic of Christmas. I never grow tired of it. Below are some ideas to match this great book. Now the movie has become one of my favorite Holiday treats.

Three Polar Express Day Games!

This packet includes:

1.) Polar Express Counting Game - The free Gingerbread Game here will show you what this game is like!

2.) Create a Polar Express Scene Dice Game! It is similar to the free winter dice game I posted here and shown below.

3.) Race to the Polar Express Dice Game.

Bonus - Polar Express Graph and Sort Sheet. Bonus Polar Ticket. Bonus Reindeer Food Tag.

Files come Zipped in PDF

Only 3.50!

File Copyright 2012 by C. Gallagher www.teachingheart.net Graphics purchased from www.scrappindoodles.com/

Before Reading: Show the class the
cover of the book and read the title.
Have the class predict what the Polar Express is.

My favorite thing to do with this book is to read it as a Christmas present to my groups. What I do is set a scene for a train ride and simulate a ride to the North Pole.

Set up pairs of small chairs in two parallel rows with a center aisle for the imaginary train ride. In each child's chair place a warm cup of hot cocoa and softly play winter music as the group boards the train. When everyone has had his or her ticket checked and is settled, read the book aloud as you ride along. Encourage the students to tell you of the sights they see as they ride along. Ring your bell to add an extra dose of magic to the part of the book that talks of the bell.

Click here to download a ticket - you can modify to meet your needs! This one is large and has a penguin on it. If you would like a smaller one without a Penguin, please click here or look at both and pick the one you like!

Here is a new ticket created in 2010 by Teaching Heart. Click here to download!

After, I finish reading the book, I hand each student a bell to keep and wear around his or her neck. Finally we each d esign a paper bell. Give each student a cut-out of a large bell. You may choose to have them write on the bell or decorate the bell with glitter, buttons, and other art supplies.

Get a Train Cookie Cutter and make train cookies as gifts for your students.

You could decorate them in Christmas Colors & write the words Polar Express on them. The ones above were made for my son's second birthday party. A train theme of course.

Make a File Folder Game

Describe it

Students match adjectives from the story with the nouns they describe:  hissing steam, squeaking metal, hot cocoa, dark Forrest.lean wolves,quiet wilderness, barren desert, small box, little sister, loud blast, magical sound, silver bell, huge city, frozen sea.

Give your classmates or students a Choo Choo Chocolate Bar!!! You can wrap the bar in a free printable wrapper from Teaching Heart!

Click here to print this wrapper. Also, click here to check out our other Christmas Candy Bar Wrappers!

Train Poems, Songs, Fingerplays

or

I purchased the above wooden whistles. They are so cute. We did some activities with them at outdoor recess. Blow your whistle three times...

I also purchased this train craft for the students to work on at a center for our holiday party. They enjoyed making their own Polar Express.

Here are bell necklaces. Can they hear the bell?

Looking for lots of bells for sorting or patterning?

Get the Polar Express CD and play pass the box of hot chocolate while playing the song Hot Chocolate!!!
Except when the music stops, allow the child to take out a pack of hot chocolate. Play till everyone has gotten a pack of hot chocolate!

You could also make your students their own Snowman Soup Packet as a gift!
Click here to learn how to get the printable.

Elf your students! Check out my post!

I love all the Holiday Themed Marshmallows they have out this year. Not sure if they had the snowmen last year or if they are new this year, but they are yummy!!! They would be fun to use with a Polar Express Unit

I have a free set of printables to go along with the Gingerbread, Snowmen, and Holiday shapes. You just need to buy the mallows and you are set! I got mine at Walmart.

The first page in the set is for Preschool and Kindergarten. They must sort, count, write the numbers, and then circle the shape they have the most and least of! (I put a set amount in a baggie for each student)

The following page is for first and second graders. They must sort, tally, graph, and then read their results by answering questions about their data.

Gingerbread and Snowman Marshmallow Sheet – Click Here! to download these two sheets.

I have a similar sheet in my Preschool and Kindergarten Gingerbread Packet here. It only uses the Gingerbread and Holiday Mallows.

You can learn more about this sheet by clicking here!

For more fun and free winter resources please visit our winter index here.

Click Here to Learn More At Amazon!

Click Here For a Free Sample From This Book

Some More Books About Trains

Emotion

Why Did the Boy feel that way?

When do you feel that way?

Curious

Excited

Why do you think the author had the boy lose the bell?

Why do the boy and his sister hear the bell but their parents don't?

How would you describe the mood of the book?

What was your favorite part?

Have you ever rode in a train before?

A Center - Ride a Rhyme on the Polar Express

This is a rhyme center that is found on CDROM #2. You can use it in a pocket chart. You may want to make many and have the students take them to their desks to complete. As part of the center, there is a center sheet that goes along with the activity. The student completes the center sheet after they finish the center activity. They complete the center independently, but you can check their work later - if you choose.

This is a rhyme center. The student makes a chain of trains by matching the rhyming words.

To learn more about CD #2, click here!

A Class Book entitled: "Comforting Friends"

This book could be in the shape of hugging arms.  The children in the story were really concerned about the boy who lost the bell.  After discussing this, have children write about times when they confronted friends or were comforted by friends.

Introduce the Vocabulary of the Story

Cut out an engine shape from construction paper and write the title, "The Vocbulary Express" on it. Cut train car shapes on other pieces of paper. Write one word from below on each cut-out. Make a train out of these cut-outs as you introduce the words in this story...

elves, train, city, sleigh, conductor, slippers, reindeer, steam, robe, cars, pocket, Santa, bell

Creative Writing

Write a fantasy story about a time you were aboard a magical train.

Write a story about one thing you lost.

Parts of Contractions and Compound words File Folder Game:

"Ring Out"

Using two sides of a bell pattern.  Paste a side on each part of the folder.  Paste the words on one side of the bell and use Velcro to place the contractions on the other side.  If you wish to do compound words:  glue the first part of the word on one side of the bell and use Velcro to place the second half of the word on the other side. Compound Words: outside, snowflakes, downstairs,outstretched,northward,nightgowns Contractions: I'd, let's, couldn't, that's, It's, I've

Make your winter lessons something your students will love!!!

Check out our Winter Warm Up Packet

or

Our Gingerbread and Snowman Packet

or Do It Yourself Christmas Treats for Students, Teachers, and Classmates!!

What a find!!! Post has a Limited Edition Cereal called the Polar Express. It is like chocolate Lucky Charms with marshmallows in the shapes of bells, trains, mountains, snowflakes, and reindeer. Being the teacher I am and a HUGE Polar Express fan, I am sure many heard me shout when I saw this in my Grocery Stores (Giant Eagle), cereal aisle. Here is what the box and the cereal look like. Unfortunately, this cereal is no longer made...

I have created a Polar Express sorting and graphing sheet for you to use with or without the cereal. Click below to print and use. (Please do not link directly to these sheets - you may link to this page.)

Sorting The Polar Express

Graphing The Polar Express

It is my guess that this cereal was only in stores in 2004. So I created two more sheets that you will not need the cereal for.

Graphing w/o cereal

Sorting w/o cereal

Santa is found in the Winter Shapes Macaroni and Cheese... wish there was a train... but still fun for this unit. Click here to download the free printables!

Word Pictures; Read one of Fred Gwynne's books about word play, such as The King who Rained.  Talk about homonyms and descriptive phrases.  Have students make drawings to illustrate theses phrases from Polar Express:

Ben's Dream

The Garden of Abdul Gasazi

Two Bad Ants

Just a Dream

Jumanji

Classroom Activities PDF

The Polar Express (PDF)
Very cute book using the Brown Bear Format.
This will make a good activity
to use with your Polar Express Unit.

Winter Theme Page With Tons of Ideas!!!

The Polar Express Glyph by Marilyn Vaughn
Students will complete and cut out their train. Make a train mural in your classroom. The students will count the responses for each question and create a graph of the responses using Microsoft Excel or Graph Club.