Children love to pretend to be Firefighters, Doctors, Construction Workers, Musicians, Artists and anything grown-up. These Construction Themed Activities are a perfect way to introduce kids to these brave community helpers that work to make life better for others.
Construction Themed Activities
Creative Space
Play dough, stamps, scissors, lacing beads and cards, puzzles and blocks are set out for the children to choose from, and get creative during this 30 minute period.
Construction Themed Circle Time
Everyday during Circle Time we do the morning routine, which includes the Calendar and ‘Number, Color, Shape and Letter of the week’. We then read a story, sing a few songs and do a group activity.
On every Monday we change the ‘Classroom Helpers’ Classroom Jobs. Each child has a name card on a popsicle stick, and they get to choose their job of the week.
Chonstruction Themed Circle Time Activities
Activity 1: Weekend News
Every Monday morning each child gets a chance to talk about their weekend and what they did. The children then draw a picture in the ‘weekend news’ journal, and the teacher writes down what they have said.
Activity 2: Hammer the Syllables
This is one of the Literacy Centres, but you can use morning meeting time to introduce it. Say various construction words and use a plastic hammer to count the syllables. Let the children try too.
Activity 3: Body Letters
Show the children how to make letters with their bodies with this video . Now write a construction word on the board and work with the children to make all the letters of the word with their bodies .
Activity 4: Remote Control
This activity was a big hit, and everyone wanted to have the remote control 🙂 Make a pretend remote control and get your group to think of actions for each button on the remote control. Fast forward, rewind, pause etc. Now play papers, scissors, stone. Whoever wins gets to control the ‘remote control’ and thus the whole class.
Activity 5: Fruit Salad
Form a circle of chairs that is one chair fewer than a total number of players. Nominate a player to be ‘in’, that player stands in the centre of the circle.
Divide all players into three groups of construction vehicles by going around the circle and naming them either bulldozer, excavator or crane. The player who is ‘in’, calls the name of a construction vehicle. If he calls out bulldozers, everyone who is a bulldozer must get up quickly and change places. Players who are not bulldozers remain seated.
The person who is ‘in’ tries to sit in an empty spot whenever players swap positions. If they manage to sit in a chair, the player not sitting in a chair is then ‘in’. The person in the middle can also call ‘Let’s get to work!’ and everyone who is seated has to change spots.
Construction Themed Songs
Fourteen action songs and rhymes all about Construction to get those bodies moving and grooving. Click on the image to head over to the post.
Construction Themed Books
Eighteen of the best story picture books that are perfect for a Construction theme. Click on the image below to read what these books are about.
Construction Themed Literacy Activities
Center 1: Letter Towers
Children use Wooden Letter Blocks to build towers. They find the same letters that is in each square, and put these on the square with the same letter. Which letter tower is the tallest?
Center 2: Building Words
Children roll aluminum foil into little balls and use these to ‘build’ the words on the cards. When they are done they can try to copy the words underneath it with whiteboard markers.
Center 3: Hammer the Syllables
Children say the words, hammer the syllables in the dot, and color the number of syllables.
Activity 1: Good night, Good Night, Construction Site
Read Goodnight, Goodnight Construction site and complete the following free printable activity sheets which you will find here over at www.teachingwithchildrensbooks.com.
- Trace the letters
- Upper/ lower case match
- Color all the C’s
Construction Themed Math Activities
Center 1: Symmetry
Children DUPLO blocks to place onto the symmetry cards.
Center 2: 3D Numbers
Use DUPLO blocks to construct 3D numbers. Then use the blocks to fill up the ten-frames.
Center 3: Build-A-City
Laminate the ‘Build-a-City’ cards. Children look at the numbers and place the same number of DUPLO blocks on each square, to build a city. For example, if a square has the number 5 on it, children build a DUPLO block tower with 5 blocks.
Center 4: Shape Construction
Laminate the Shape Construction cards. Each child chooses a card and then construct the shape on it using popsicle sticks.
Center 4: Measuring Walls Center
Laminate the ‘Measuring Walls’ Cards. Children will need to work in groups in this center. They look at the cards and build the walls on it using the same amount of wooden blocks as on the cards.
When they are done, they measure the length of the wall. We used a pipe cleaner, but you can also use rulers, paper clips, shoes etc. The children then write how many units each wall is long.
Activity: Color by Numbers
Children choose one of the pictures of the construction vehicles and color it according to the numbers.
Construction Themed Art: City Planner
I got this idea over at www.paper-and-glue.com. Click on the link to head over to their blog for full instructions. In my class, the children were really into it, and even cut out little cars to drive around on the ‘roads’.
Construction Themed Science
This fantastic idea, I got over at bigrentz.com. They even have free printable instructions, so head over to their blog to download these. We used play dough, instead of marshmallows, and even though it was a little heavier, so a little harder to construct the 3D shapes, the children still did an amazing job!
Construction Themed STEM
Head over to www.preschoolpowolpackets.blogspot.com to find the step-by-step instructions for this awesome Construction theme STEM challenge.
Construction Themed Snack Idea
I found the idea for these adorable Traffic Light Skewers over at mimisdollhouse.com. Once again, click on the image to head over to their blog for the full recipe plus many more other Construction Themed snack ideas.
Construction Themed Dramatic Play
For a full Construction Worker Costume with tools included, click on the link to get it at the Amazon Online Store.
Phonics
Phonics is taught in order from A – Z and we spend the first semester on learning all the letter sounds. The second semester is spent on Word Families and Sight Words. We learn 2 letter sounds a week through songs, crafts, centers, cut-and-paste activities, tracing & coloring. This week we will learn about the letters Ww & Xx
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Monday: Letter Introduction
Every Monday, the teacher introduces the letters of the week. We watch the Jolly Phonics Letters W & X songs and do the actions, then listen to the Bounce Patrol letters W & X songs. Afterwards, we play the letters Ww & Xx games on Starfall.
The teacher then shows the children the word cards and ask them to name the pictures and to place it under the correct letter on the word wall.
Tuesday & Thursday: Letter Crafts
Tuesdays and Thursdays are reserved for Letter Crafts. The children all love these. For this week we did the ‘W is for Watermelon’ and ‘X is for X-Ray’ Letter Crafts.
Wednesday: Tracing Letters and Beginning Sounds Centers
Friday: Beginning Sounds Sorting and Cut-and-Paste
Click on the images below to download the Construction Themed Math & Literacy Centers, Printables and Activities.
