I thought it was about time to talk about our most popular role play area which is our construction site!
When designing Pop Up Play Village, I never planned a construction site. It came later when I decided to add a new role play area to our village. I suggested a few ideas in a few Facebook groups and the construction site came out as the winner!
Buying the bricks were the easiest part of designing the construction site. I had used them before in my teaching days and knew this was what was needed to make the construction site epic! From there, I started to look for wheelbarrows and I have to say, I was really disappointed. Most wheelbarrows, I was looking at were made out of cheap plastic and I knew that they wouldn’t last. After hours (yes hours) of looking, I stumbled across our gorgeous bright orange wheelbarrows that we have today. Yes they were very expensive but so worth every penny! The number of little ones, I have seen learning to walk with these wheelbarrows has been amazing including my own daughter to older children finding different uses for them such as filling with bricks, going to the supermarket with them or sitting in them for rides. Definitely multi-purpose!
The bricks and wheelbarrows were definitely the key items needed but a construction site is not complete without cones and tools. After purchasing these items, I felt that I needed to get numbers into the construction site so I added a big tape measure for this! The tape measure has been great. I have seen so many things measured with this tape measure. I think the best was when I saw a child take it outside to measure the trunk of a tree, this was magical to watch!
To get into the character of a builder, we needed to have builders’ jackets and hats which have been so popular. What I love about the builders dressing up is that the children can often manage to put it on themselves which definitely encourages their independence.
Very recently, we have added some new grey breeze blocks bricks to our construction site which have gone down really well. We felt that by having a variety of bricks and more bricks, this would enable even more creativity which has been amazing to see.
With my teaching hat on, the construction site supports and encourages so many key skills. It enables children to work in a team, encouraging them to communicate with others to collaborate ideas. It also develops problem solving skills by testing ways to make a design stronger and less likely to fall down. It also enables children to be creative, there are so many ways that our bricks can be used and every time, I run an event, they are used differently! It really amazes me how creative children can be! On top of this, children love to build and knock down what they have built! As long as they are the ones to knock down their own model that is!
All of our team at Pop Up Play Village love the construction site and it continues to excite us no matter how many times we play with it 😊
Written by Becky Hoare, Creator and Franchisor of Pop Up Play Village
