Turn a cardboard box into small world construction site for hours of imaginative play. It’s an easy, inexpensive way to set up an engaging activity that will keep toddlers and preschoolers busy for hours.Â
I love making sensory bins for the hooligans, and I often make them without spending a dime.
I have a new little toddler in my daycare, and he is obsessed with cars, trucks and diggers.
Backhoes, excavators, graders, bulldozers… Â you name it… if it pushes, lifts or moves dirt, he’s a fan, and he wants to play with it. He adores cars and trucks too, but construction vehicles fascinate him most. He just turned 2 and he knows most of the vehicles by name already.
Knowing how much most kids love small world play, and wanting to make my new, daycare hooligan as happy as possible, I created this cardboard box sensory bin filled with lots of construction vehicles and accessories for him to explore and play with.
To say it was a hit would be an understatement! He LOVED it so much!
How to make your construction vehicle sensory bin:
A simple cardboard box sensory bin is really easy to set up. Â Choose a theme, choose a base material, and fill your box with whatever you think will interest your child; dinosaurs, farm animals, or jungle animals would be fun.
Note: we’ve also set up a construction bin in a foil roasting pan before.
I used sand from our sandbox as a base for the construction bin, and I added some sticks, glass beads and stones along with the small dump trucks and diggers.
He played with it for hours, digging and moving the sand, and scooping the beads and stones into the dump trucks.
He would line up the vehicles, taking great care to make a parking lot, and he was mesmerized with by the wheels. Â He would get his head down low, and push the vehicles back and forth in the sand, just watching the wheels turn.
Our cardboard box construction site provided hours of entertainment over the course of the week.
Isn’t it wonderful when the simplest of ideas are such a hit?
More Fun Activities for Boys Who Love Cars:
 More Easy Activity Bins for Kids:
Teeny- Tiny Ocean Activity Bin
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
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[…] you can see, the car-lovin’ little man preferred to play with the simple cardboard box activity that I set up for him earlier this week. He’s hardly played […]