(FREE!) Construction Playdough Mats

Today, I am sharing another freebie with you’ll. This is ideal for children who LOVE trucks and construction related work. This is a construction set of playdough mats. This is a freebie so just your copy of the printable at the end of the post.

 

There are a total of 9 playdough mats. The printable is available in both colour and black and white. Each mat contains a real photo of the construction vehicle or tool. This way kiddos who are obsessed with vehicles will have a chance to look at the photos as well.

This printable includes the following playdough mats:

• backhoe
• bulldozer
• crane
• cement truck
• dump truck
• front end loader
• safety helmet
• safety cone
• road construction sign 

I love playdough mats because it incorporates a few aspects in one activity. It can be used to teach colours while working those little fingers, improving fine motor skills. In this case, it can also work as a construction themed activity. 🙂 

Play dough mats are a fun way to prompt your child and get them engaged in play. Play dough helps to build fine motor skills. Our kiddos little hands are not strong enough to hold a pencil and write letters and play dough works to fix that. Every time our kids pinch, squeeze, and roll play dough their hands get stronger and they are working the muscles that they will use in the future to hold a pencil or scissors.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE:

• Print either in colour or black and white, laminate and cut it.
• Give the students tubs of playdough and ask them to make the construction vehicles and tools using playdough.

 

Ideas for teaching a preschool or kindergarten construction themed unit:

• Include in some vocabulary cards or photo cards of construction sites, vehicles and tools. You may also want to check out this printable on construction vehicles. It contains real photos of construction vehicles and can be used as vocabulary cards or be made into 3-part cards. Click on the image below to get your own copy.

 

• Make a simple construction themed sensory bin. There are several ideas out on pinterest, but I prefer making simple bins which are easy to make and maintain. This can include getting kinetic sand (dirt coloured kinetic sand would add a nice touch). Put in small construction vehicles, and ask the children to get their hands dirty, making the construction carry the dirt, dump it around. Encourage them to build small structures using the sand within the bin (might be good to remind them to keep things inside the bin). Trucker gets really excited whenever we set this up, that it can tend to get a bit out of control! To make things more realistic you get some small pebbles or stones and put it into the bin to give them a realistic feel of a ‘Construction Site’.
• If you do have helmets, tools or construction tools, add these into the sensory bin. Don’t add in too many things at once, it can get quite overwhelming when there are too many things to do. Put in some of the items for the first day and then swap them out for another set of toys the next day. This way there is enough variety and prevents the bin from getting boring. 
• Just have fun with your sensory bin and experiment with how your preschooler or kindergartener likes it and switch things around as you like.

This is a free printable so just grab your copy of the printable below.

 

<<Click here to download your printable>>