My son has always loved to dig in the dirt and play with his construction vehicles.  There was a time when he only wanted me to check out construction site themed books out of the library. He loved them so much I made him a construction site themed cake for his birthday when he was three.

Recently we read the book Road Work Ahead by Anastasia Suen. It is a wonderful story about a road trip to visit grandmother. Along the way a family sees all kinds of construction equipment doing work.  There are jackhammers digging holes in the road. Cherry pickers helping worker change light bulbs in street lights. Dump trucks filled with dirt from a job site crossing the road. The family has so many vehicles and construction sites to take in. Reading this book inspired me to create a play dough activity for JDaniel that would involve some of the construction toys he has.

Play Dough Fun

I set up an invitation for JDaniel to explore construction equipment and a job site in a large plastic zipper bag.  The bag contained play dough smooshed into a toaster oven tray and several of JDaniel’s construction equipment toys.

He was told that I had it for him and he could carry it outside or play with it inside. JDaniel decided to carry it outside to the driveway. There he spread out the equipment and thought about what to do. After a couple of seconds, he started digging and prying up the play dough with a front loader. Then he switched to smoothing the play dough back down with a roller.  The play dough easily flattened out and filled the hole he had created.

Excavating play dough was fun too. Digging holes through the play dough landscape required manipulating the scoop carefully to pick the play dough up.

What I like about this activity!