Busy Bags. part two

Part Two is finally here!

Busy bags are great for toddlers, preschoolers and even kindergarten children.  Some people like to use them for the car ride and keep their littles occupied.  Others prefer to take them along to the store, the doctors office- any kind of appointment where you need the children to be peacefully occupied.  I, like to use them to keep my 1 and 3 year olds busy while I homeschool my 1st grader and 3rd grader.  What ever your need, these little activities are great for passing the time in an educational manner.

1. NUMBER LINE.  motor skills, number recognition and counting.  Use a clothes pin to “point” to the correct number of items displayed and pin it to the numerical equivalent.

 

 

2.  COLOR WHEEL.  color recognition, motor skill.  Color clothes pins and have your child match the correct clothes pin to the correct wedge on the color wheel.

 

 

3.  ABC SPOON MATCH.  Clear spoons are lower case letters.  White spoons are upper case letters.  Match the two spoons with the same letter.

 

 

4.  COUNTING WHEEL.  counting, number recognition.  Place stickers in wheel wedges and number corresponding clothes pins.  Children count the number of sticker dots and then clip the pin.

 

 

5.  CLOCK.  telling time. This one is kinda self explanatory. 🙂

 

6.  POPSICLE STICKS.  color matching, motor skills.  color tongue depressors or popsicle sticks.  Make felt tops (sewing works best to get these little babies to last the toddler play).  Children match the top felt color to the coordinating stick color.

 

7.  SHAPE MATCH.  motor skills, motor planning, color match.  Color popsicle sticks and attach velcro.  Then you can create cards of different shapes and have your child make the same shape as the card.  OR- forgo making cards and simply make a shape and have your child copy the same shape.

 

8.  ABC LETTER MATCH.  Letter recognition, sound recognition.  Using mini clothes pins, label each with a letter of the alphabet.  Kids match the initial sound of the picture to the correct lettered clothes pin.

 

 

9.  NUTS ABOUT WORDS.  Use a screw and nuts.  Place letter stickers on the nuts.  Children make words by spinning the nuts.  START WITH THREE LETTER WORDS.  THIS IS AN ADVANCED ACTIVITY.

 

10.  MEMORY. matching shapes.  This is the timeless game of Memory.  🙂

These are all simply made things you can do with whatever resources you have.  The ABC LETTER MATCH is probably the only one that you’d need to be creative in making but even if you don’t have a computer program to help you make this it could be done by cutting out pictures from a magazine.