Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site (find at your local library or purchase from Amazon) is one of those perfect little gems that we visit when exploring construction-related themes like Building, Roads, Community Helpers and Towns or Cities. Sherri Duskey Rinker’s soothing rhymes are gentle and relaxing — two words you are generally unlikely to associate with construction themes, but which are nonetheless appropriate. Tom Lichtenheld’s muted illustrations have oodles of personality and set just the right tone for a calming read.

Gentle? Relaxing? Calming? So, if it could put your kiddos to sleep, do you really want to read it to your class? It’s true, this one is a perfect bedtime story. But it’s also a super-relaxing book, and it makes for a great quiet-time read or a good transition when your goal is to come down from boisterous activity. We have read it after large-group, centers or movement activities and it helps that transition perfectly.

The story starts at the end of the day at an active construction site. The vehicles one-by-one finish their work and turn in for the night and the reader says “good night” to each of them. The words are so descriptive — Crane Truck stretches his boom to place his last beam, Cement Truck slows his whirling and pours his last liquidy load, Dump Truck drops his bed, Bulldozer puffs one last gust from his stack and Excavator stows his scoop. It shows us that everyone, even busy construction vehicles, has to slow down and reset at some point.

We love this book for 2s, 3s and Pre-K

(Below please find a list of reading comprehension questions and vocabulary words. This list is not exhaustive, and it may spark additional questions from your kiddos. As always, we recommend that you scaffold based on your age group and the wigglies of your kiddos.)

*Downloadable/printable copy of lesson plan is below

Reading comprehension questions:

Before reading: Show the cover. What is happening on the cover? What do you think this book might be about?

After reading title: What do you think it’s about now? Is that the same as what you thought before we read the title?

As you read: Explain that the story says the construction trucks are building a building and making a road. After we read all of the story, let’s talk about which trucks we think are building the building and which are building the road.

After reading: Which of these trucks do you think helps to build a building? Why? How about a road? Why? Do you think that construction trucks look like the ones in this book — with eyes and mouths? Why do you think the illustrator drew them that way? Do you think that construction trucks actually go to sleep at night? What do you think happens when the construction workers leave the construction vehicles for the night?

Vocabulary words:

• might
• beam
• boom
• churning
• whirly
• weary
• chute
• drum
• dims
• grade
• level
• thunderous
• stack
• beneath

Enrichment Activities:

Art: Check out our free tutorial: Construction Vehicle Painting, inspired by Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, to create some cool process-based art!