How to Make a Construction Themed Playdough Tray

4K Shares

Learn how to gather a bunch of materials to create a construction-themed playdough tray. Your kids will love this thematic invitation to play.

I love putting together playdough invitations to play.  It’s so much fun digging through my craft closet looking for supplies.

For this construction-themed playdough tray, I even dug through the garage for supplies.  I will just have to be sure to wash off every bit of playdough when I’m done or my husband will never let me raid his workshop again.

A construction themed playdough activity.

If your kids can’t share supplies, don’t worry.  You can use the ideas below to create individual playdough kits for your kids.

Every Playdough Tray Needs Playdough

The most important part of a playdough invitation to play is, of course, playdough.  If you want to make some thematic dough, be sure to check out my post featuring construction-themed playdough recipes and ideas.

Adding supplies to your construction themed playdough.

Fill the Playdough Tray

Use a divided tray to hold all of the fun materials for your kids.  Here is what I used to fill my tray:

  • plastic bottle caps
  • nuts, bolts, and washers,
  • granite tiles (I found them at the Habitat ReStore)
  • two sizes/colors of pebbles (vase fillers)
  • A variety of popsicle and wooden sticks
  • number cards
Making a construction themed playdough invitation to play.

Finally, add some construction vehicles and you are all set.

Additional Material Ideas

The fun thing about these activities is you can get really creative when filling your tray.  Here are some additional material ideas.

  • golf tees and hammers
  • wrenches (allen, crescent, socket)
  • screwdrivers
  • putty knives
  • zip ties
  • spools
  • blocks
  • springs
  • beans, black beans
  • tape measures or rulers
  • rolling pins
  • pieces of cardboard
  • drill bits
  • toothpicks
  • short dowels

Let Them Play

Your kids will have a great time finding different ways to use the materials.  Add some wrenches, screwdrivers, and putty knives to the mix.

Be creative when adding supplies for your construction themed playdough activity.

I love the textures that can be made with the bolts.

Adding screws to your construction themed playdough.

Opportunities for Math and Literacy Learning

Using playdough is a great sensory, fine motor, and creative activity for your kids.  You can also introduce math and early literacy concepts.

Adding rocks to your construction themed playdough activity.

Here are some ideas:

  • Add number playdough mats or number cards to the playdough tray.  Kids can count the materials.
  • Write letters on the rocks and kids can find letters in their names or spell their names.
  • Add alphabet playdough mats to the playdough tray.

I hope that you have fun creating a construction-themed playdough tray for your kids.  I can’t wait to hear how it goes.  Now, I’m off to clean my husband’s tools.

More Construction Theme Activities in the Store

The playdough mat and number cards pictured in this post are part of the construction-themed resource in my store.  To check out the construction bundle, click on the image below.

4K Shares