Kawaii steam train with a smiling face, puff clouds, round wheels, and blocky cars by rolling hills.

Smiling Steam Train with Block Cars

A cheerful steam engine rolls past soft hills, pulling two chunky block cars while three puffs drift from its stack.

🎨 How to color it

Color the smiling engine cherry red, the tall smokestack charcoal gray, the block cars sunny yellow, and the three smoke puffs pale blue. Use broad crayon or marker strokes on the big wheels and square cargo blocks, then save a sharper pencil for the grill bars and tiny face. Try making each block-car square a slightly different shade of yellow or orange, like handmade wooden pieces riding behind the engine.

The story behind this coloring page

Willa’s Handmade Hello — Beside the hill spur, Willa pressed her thumbs into soft clay and made little square blocks, one for every person she wanted to greet. The clay smelled like rain on a sidewalk. Read the full story →

Beside the hill spur, Willa pressed her thumbs into soft clay and made little square blocks, one for every person she wanted to greet. The clay smelled like rain on a sidewalk. She scratched a tiny sun into one block, a tiny moon into another, and lined them on the flat cars of the steam train. “Chuff softly,” she whispered, and the engine answered with a warm puff-puff.

As the train began to roll, a blue beetle stepped from the grass carrying a bottle-cap tray of dew. It touched each block with one shining drop. Suddenly Willa saw that her thumb marks were not smudges at all—they were tiny hills and roads, made by her own hands. The beetle rode on the front rail, proud as a mayor. Next time you spot the square cars, can you find the tiny greetings from beside the hill spur?