Check out some fun and engaging Construction Themed Activities for kids to help them explore and learn about building, letters, counting and more! Children are fascinated with construction work zones and all the equipment that the workers use. That’s why I am so excited to share some activities you can do with your babies, toddlers and preschool-aged children that have a construction theme!
Each month inside my Little Play Club membership, I share a new themed play pack with our members. They’re just one of the incredible reasons why hundreds of playful parents and educators from around the world have joined our community. Inside these packs, I develop a whole bunch of ideas and activities to help develop fine motor skills, early mathematical skills, sensory exploration and even some literacy learning too!
There are sensory play ideas, process art activities, fine motor invitations, and so much more included every single month – all designed by me (an early years teacher!) to develop all of those essential early skills in an age-appropriate, playful way! These packs are designed for children up to age 6, and we have a whole lot of fun as a family testing the activities together before we share them in our community.
Construction Play Dough Mats
So let’s get started! Play dough mats are so much fun and provide so many benefits to little learners! There are two kinds of muscles that you may hear about when you are talking about young children. There are fine motor muscles and gross motor muscles. Gross motor muscles are muscles that are used for tasks like jumping, running, swinging their arms, etc. Fine motor muscles are used during writing, coloring, pointing at words in books, holding writing utensils, squeezing objects, making a fist, etc.
It’s essential that children develop both kinds of muscles, but the fine motor muscles are something that will significantly benefit your child when they start school. Play dough mats are a great tool to use to encourage fine motor usage! Children will squeeze, squash and roll the play dough, which uses all kinds of little muscles in the hands. They also get to use their imagination to create fun play dough models.
The construction-themed play dough mats come in a bundle with 7 images that you print. I recommend laminating or sliding the play dough mats into a transparent protector sheet so the play dough doesn’t stick to the paper. Children will roll, smash and cover the images to create a construction themed play dough picture. These mats also allow children to develop visual-spatial relations (making the play dough the correct size to match the image).
Construction Busy Book
Busy books are a life-saver when you need your little ones to keep busy, whether you’re out and about at appointments or helping a baby sibling. The Construction Busy Book contains 12 activities that will engage your child in building, counting and letter knowledge. You will print the book; I like to use cardstock for durability. Then laminate the pages and cut out the matching pieces. I use binder rings to create a book and Velcro dots to create the matching aspects in the book.
Another great feature of the busy book is that it features pages with guides and without, so you can tailor the book to your child’s needs. Maybe they aren’t ready to complete a puzzle independently, no worries! There is a blank page and one that provides some clues to help them complete the activity.
Learn about comparing sizes, building brick walls, matching tools and so much more with this downloadable Construction Busy Book!
Construction Print and Go Booklet
The construction print and go booklet is perfect for when you need something quick and easy to prep! There are 14 pages for your child to complete. They will practice skills like counting, matching, addition, tracing and so much more. Children will enjoy these cute building-themed worksheets that can be printed and made into a book.
The print and go book will be the perfect tool to keep in your bag or vehicle for when you are out and about and have a bored kiddo! We originally created these as an add on for interested older children in the Little Play Club and they’ve become quite popular! Your little learner can complete the activities and then colour the pictures when they’re done or pair one printable with a hands-on play idea or activity!
Construction Dramatic Play Set
Set up an awesome Construction Themed Dramatic Play space for little learners! They will love working on the site with name tags, work orders, tool tags and more! I added in some caution tape, construction hats, wooden boxes, rocks, plastic play tools and a few other things to make the construction site more realistic!
Children will work on early mathematics, pre-reading skills and early writing skills while they explore a construction site and get lost in their imagination! They will build their vocabulary and real-life knowledge of construction while role-playing and developing social skills. You will have so much fun exploring the construction site with this dramatic play bundle!
Construction Play Pack
Want even more construction themed activities for kids in one spot? Check out our popular Construction Play Pack from the Little Play Club! This pack also includes the Construction Busy Book, Print and Go booklet and Play Dough mats mentioned earlier in this post as well as a heap of other printables and play ideas for your toddler and preschooler!
Construction Sensory Bottles are a fun way to explore the construction theme while babies and young children hear new sounds, feel new textures and see new colours! They’re great for baby siblings to join in on the fun! If your children are older, create sensory bins to allow children to touch and manipulate the things you found for the construction sensory activity. Check out our dirt dough recipe to make kid-friendly dirt for littles – all included in the Construction Play Pack!
Grab some cardboard, golf tees, and a mallet to create an activity that will increase fine motor muscles. Children will pound the golf tees into the cardboard. They will work on their hand-eye coordination, gross motor and fine motor skills, and spatial reasoning.
Another activity featured in the Construction Play Pack is a rock sorting game. Children will sort rocks to correspond with the sorting cards. Little learners will practice size recognition and sorting. They also work on their fine motor skills by picking up and moving the rocks into piles. A construction theme can be so captivating for young learners!
Want access to a brand new themed Play Pack EVERY single month? Well when you join our membership, the Little Play Club as a monthly member, that’s exactly what you’ll get! Annual VIP members will also get access to all of our previous Play Packs which is an incredible way to save money! Click here to find out more about the Little Play Club.
We had a construction-themed birthday party for our little boy some years back – these resources would have been great help then, particularly the dramatic play. So much work and thought have gone into these Casey, fantastic!
Just love it!