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Play Dough Construction Site Small World Play

June 25, 2013 by Anna Ranson

Make a  construction site for diggers and dumper truck imaginative play using homemade black play dough! Fantastic fun for vehicle lovers and encouraging imaginative, sensory and role play for kids, not to mention developing fine motor skills at the same time!

 Play dough activity with diggers and dumper trucks

I’m finally writing up some of the many hundreds of Invitations to Play that we have been sharing  on our Facebook page over the last year. This was one of our most popular ideas so far and definitely needs a post of its own!

Making roads with play dough

My girls love all sorts of toys and we deliberately present them with a wide range of types so as not to conform to stereotypes. Ever sine they were babies they have all loved cars and trains and any type of vehicle that can be rolled, raced and used to scoop and transport things around! We often play small world construction sites and since we had some black play dough left over from another activity we decided to use it to become roads and rubble in a play dough builders site!

Making roads with play dough

To make the black play dough we had whipped up a super-quick batch of our 4 minute no-cook recipe, adding black Silverspoon colouring at the boiling water stage. If you can’t obtain any black colouring you can try adding a squeeze of ready mix paint or a tablespoon of black powered paint instead.
Roads and construction site in play dough We rolled out the black play dough and squashed it into long strips to become roads, adding in a roundabout and a crossroad junction. Then they rolled little strips of yellow play dough which we had stored, and used it to make the marker strips along the centre of the roads.
Dumper truck and play dough boulders They set about making some rocks and rubble by rolling different sized balls of black play dough and used these to fill and tip out of the dumper trucks.Play dough construction With a few construction worker play people and some little signs the small world scene was ready to go! They played here for a long time and invented lots of stories together, changing the roads and remodelling them as they did so.Play dough construction site activity

What they are learning as they play:
creativity: designing and modelling using 3D materials, inventing games
physical: fine motor skills through rolling and squeezing dough
literacy: making up stories, new vocabulary
knowledge of the world: understanding the role of construction workers and the tools they use
Cakie: 4.9
Pop: 3.3
Bean: 16 mos
Check out over 50 creative play dough ideas in our A-Z of play dough collection!
A-Z collection of play dough recipes and activities

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Filed Under: Activities, Age, Construction Site, Create, Creativity, Diggers, Fine Motor Development, Invitations to Play, Knowledge and Understanding, Learn, Messy Play, Motor Skills, Play, Play Prompts, Playdough, Preschooler, Role Play, School Age, Sensory, Small World, Toddler Tagged With: Play Dough, Small World Play

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Comments

  1. Kate says

    June 25, 2013 at 3:10 pm

    This is such a great idea and so easy for people to do at home. Children can create a new roads going different directions and so it will always be fun and interesting each time they play. The possibilities are endless. Thank you.

  2. Rachel Davison says

    June 25, 2013 at 8:07 pm

    What a great idea! This looks like fun, and I love your points about gender toys and stereo types!

  3. 1St Merchant Funding says

    June 27, 2013 at 10:48 pm

    hello there! , I like your crafting very a whole lot! quantity most of us sustain your distance learning more regarding your content in AOL? I need to have a professional about this house to uncover the issue. Maybe which is you! Looking forward to search an individual.

  4. JDaniel4's Mom says

    July 2, 2013 at 1:24 pm

    I totally love this! Your pictures draw me and make me what to join in and play.

  5. Debs says

    November 12, 2013 at 2:48 am

    So cool! Just letting you know I’ve featured this post on Tuesday Tots this week 😉 x

Trackbacks

  1. Construction small world play | The Crafty Kitty says:
    June 30, 2013 at 10:46 pm

    […] to Play over at The Imagination Tree and use #invitationtoplay. Anna also posted about this Play Dough Construction Site Small World Play this […]

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About The Imagination Tree Hello and welcome! I'm Anna, Mama of 4, early years teacher and play enthusiast from the UK! Click here to read more about me.

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