Community Helpers Theme: Construction Workers and Vehicles

One of the best days of our year so far was
when we came home to find this in our apartment
complex parking lot!

 My son loves all things related to construction. Trucks, diggers, dirt, hard hats, shovels, tools, rocks--it's his best version of a playground. I can remember early last summer driving a ridiculously long distance to get to a far out branch of our library that is known for having an amazing children's play area. Just as we pulled into the lot, we passed a huge construction site full of dirt, piles of rocks and huge excavators. When we got inside the library and into that amazing children's area, my son started throwing a colossal fit; he wanted to go back to the parking lot to see the "big diggers!"
Well, we definitely needed to include construction workers and vehicles into our Community Helpers theme! As it is already a play theme he loves, we have a lot of related toys, books and activities here. To add some novelty to the topic today, we included some new books checked out from the library and some play activities to go along with them.

Our Construction Worker Puppet is ready
for a great day at Homeschool!

My son loves the board book series by Steve Light. Diggers Go has become a new favorite! He was equally excited to find our construction worker puppet and a copy of I Drive a Backhoe by Sarah Bridges and illustrated by Amy Bailey Muelenhardt in his school bag this morning.

If your little ones like construction vehicles, this is the book for you!

 It was a rather rainy day outside, so rather than digging around in the dirt and rocks outdoors, we found ways to play about construction workers inside!

All set up for some construction themed dramatic play plus an invitation to play with playdough and toy tools!

Tools and playdough were a match made in heaven!

He especially has enjoyed our construction site small world sensory bin. I used dried beans and pasta we've had on hand (spoiler alert, they will be reappearing in our Baker/Chef Day theme!) and added some toy construction workers, vehicles, scoops and dishes to fill and even some mini-eraser tools I found at our Dollar Tree. He added the big excavator!

He also had a lot of fun working on and in this cardboard Car Shop I found at the Dollar Tree. It came with stickers he enjoyed using to decorate and I added in some little toy people, he aforementioned mini-eraser tools and some cars! He LOVED it--a dollar well spent!

Car Shop

We've got a couple of Community Helpers left to learn about that will have us busy in the kitchen and at play--plus a day of exploring how we are helpers in our own home and family. Until then...

Happy Playing!