There is something about making big holes that is fascinating to people, big and small. Going to watch a construction site is a perfectly valid field trip option in our house, and yours likely isn’t much different. And the bigger the digger, the better the field trip!
Hands on play
- Set up an indoor sand or rice box (unless you are lucky enough to have snow, in which case just fill your bath tub!) and add toy diggers. If you don’t have any, your local thrift shop can help you out, or I can personally attest that the Toystate CAT Mini Machine, 3″, 5-Pack
set works, is hard wearing, and the perfect size for little hands. We’ve had similar items from the dollar store, but these hold up better.
- Make play dough and add toy diggers. The more rugged the wheels, the better!
- Save a box full of packing peanuts for toy digger play. I recommend you try the biodegradable ones and use them OUTSIDE. Freecycle.org is an excellent source for things like this if you don’t get packages often. Post a “wanted.”
- Pretend that you are diggers and use your “attachments” for cleanup time. Be prepared for cleanup to take a LOOOOOONG time.
Books
These are my eldest truck lover’s hand picked selections for you. By the time you have read all of these, you will know more about construction equipment than the average construction worker.
Truck by Donald Crews
Trucks by Byron Barton
Truckery Rhymes by Jon Scieszka (this is one of a whole series, all equally wacky and delightful.)
Tonka Big Book of Trucks by Patricia Relf
Machines at Work: Digger by Nicola Deschamps
Monster Trucks by Janna Matthies
Field Trips
- Visit your nearest roadwork site. Use your local traffic website in reverse- look for construction delays and head straight for them.
- Check to see if there are any quarries or mines in your area- either active or historical. Even an out-of-action quarry will be impressive.
Printables
How about your little digger lover? Do you have a favorite book to recommend? Have you hosted a diggers playdate? We’d love your feedback! Just use the comment box down there. Thanks! You’re the best.
