Small world bins can be extremely fun and despite how elaborate they can look on Pinterest, they’re usually actually pretty simple to make.

Here’s a construction worker small world that was under $7 to make using dollar store items and my sons toys.

The materials I used I had around the house already because we do a lot of sensory play, but they were mostly purchased from the home decor section of the dollar store.

If you’re looking for sensory play material, skip the toy section and head to the decor and holiday section of the dollar store; that’s where most of the great material is located.

The serving tray we use for sensory play had been reused for many projects but that was purchased at Target. You can use the trays from the dollar store however or even a deep pan or cookie sheet.

Black decor rocks/fish tank pebbles.
Decor logs (or you can use material from outside! Even better)
River rocks
Plastic Construction truck and Lego man
Whatever other material inspires you!

We laid down the rocks and spread them out and arranged the material.

My son loves watching the process so if you’re doing this at home or in the classroom, let your kids watch you put it together or help. It’s super exciting for them!

If the small rocks are a hazard concern you can substitute them for beach sand or kinetic sand.

My son had a blast playing with it. This small world has a lot of tactile sensory aspects with the pebbles and rough wood logs. The pebbles also made a really cool sound when he drove the truck across it as well.

He did eventually decide to add his Hotwheel cars (which he does for most of our projects) and sticky blocks which is fine.

This is a very important part to remember about small world!

It’s okay to for them to add or take away items from the small world. The ultimate goal is to let the child explore and engage with it the way they want to.

It ruins the point if you try to keep the project looking perfect!

Questions/conversation prompts you can ask to extend learning:

How many ______ are there?
How do the logs feel? (Introduce new vocabulary like “course” and “rugged”)
Have you seen any constructions sites lately? What do you think they were building?
What other kind of materials should we use to build ____?
Which of these stones is the biggest?
Which log should we use as the base to make our tower sturdier?
How do you think the construction worker would feel if he accidentally built the tower backward?