Dig dig dig! Excavators are amazing digging machines! You may have seen them at construction sites – they can dig big holes with their long arm and bucket that is like a big shovel! Make your own excavator that can dig and dump our construction material with our excavator craft! As you put your excavator together, you’ll learn about all the different parts of this special construction vehicle. Once you finish, try making our dump truck craft to move all the dirt the excavator digs up!
Things you’ll need
- Construction paper in a few different colors. We used yellow black and blue.
- Tape
- Marker
- Glue stick
- Round head fasteners
- Hole punch
- Ruler
- Bottle cap or something circular to trace to make the wheels. Ours was 2” wide.
- White colored pencil crayon – to trace onto the black paper
We’ll be making these parts of the excavator:
- Track
- Cab and engine counter weight
- Boom
- Rotating platform known as the “house”
- Arm
- Bucket
Make the track and rotating platform
The track is the part of the excavator that is most like the wheels, it moves the excavator around. With a white pencil crayon draw a rectangle to be the track. Our track is about 2” by 8”. Then use a bottle cap or something else round to create curved edges at either end of the track. Now draw another rectangle that will be the rotating platform, called the house. This is the part of the excavator that connects the track to the rest of the vehicle. It can rotate and move around so the excavator can twist while staying in one spot! Our rotating platform is about 2” by 5”.
Make the cab
The cab is where the driver sits. The engine and counterweight are also a part of the cab. You can make your cab and excavator any color you like – we used yellow for a classic look. On your construction paper, draw a rectangle. Ours is 4” by 5”. Then on one corner, draw another small rectangle to cut away. Round the edges of the top corners to make them smooth. The back of the cab is where the engine and counter weight is. Having counterweight in an excavator is important so it doesn’t tip over!
Inside of the track
On the same piece of construction paper, draw another longer rectangle to be the inside of the track. The inside of the track is the part the track wraps around so it can move. Ours is about 1.5” by 6.5”. Make sure the inside of your track fits inside of the rectangle your track you made out of black construction paper. Then round the edges on both sides.
Make the boom, arm, and bucket
The boom is the angled arm that is attached to the cab of the excavator. The arm is attached to the boom and can move up and down. The bucket is at the end of the arm, it is like a big shovel. That’s the special digging part of the excavator! To make the boom and the arm, draw two rectangles that are smaller on one end. Ours are about 1.5” by 5”. To make the bucket, draw a bucket shape that will fit at the small end of one of the rectangles.
On another piece of construction paper, draw a rectangle to make a window for your cab. We used blue paper and our window is about 2” by 2.5”.
Get ready to cut out all the shapes! Use your scissors and cut them out.
Now it’s time to assemble all the pieces of your excavator! Using your glue stick, glue the inside of the track to the track. Then glue the rotating platform to the top of the track, and the cab to the top of the rotating platform. Glue your window onto the cab.
Position and place your other pieces. The bigger end of the boom is attached to the cab, the arm is attached to the boom, and the bucket is the smaller end of the arm. Using a hole punch, make three holes. One where the boom and cab connect, one where the boom and arm connect, and one where the arm and bucket connect, making sure the hole goes through both pieces. Then attach the pieces by adding the round head fasteners through the holes. Now the pieces can move!
Now you can make some material for the excavator to dig! Draw and cut out some dirt, gravel or sand for your excavator to dig from a piece of construction paper.
Finally, flip your excavator over and add a pocket to the back of the bucket for your digging material. Cut out a small shape that will fit on the back of your bucket and secure it in place using tape on one side. This picket can hold your digging material and dump it out!
Now your excavator is ready to dig dig dig and help out all over your construction site!
For more construction truck fun, watch our Caitie’s Classroom episode Construction Trucks!
Try making our dump truck craft to go along with your excavator!
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