Busy bags are small bags of reusable materials that keep kids busy. They are educational in some nature. They work on things like fine motor skills, gross motor skills, colors, counting, etc. They are portable and meant to keep kids busy at the doctor's office, waiting in line, or just at home on a rainy or snowy day. Here are some links to sites with busy bag ideas for older toddlers/preschoolers:
http://www.walkingbytheway.com/blog/ultimate-guide-preschool-busy-bags/
http://mysmallpotatoes.com/2012/07/21/a-busy-bag-round-up/
http://blog.babygizmo.com/2012/06/busy-bags-keeping-little-hands-busy/
http://secondstorywindow.typepad.com/home/busy-bag/
Busy Bags for Older Toddlers:
For this swap, I'd like to gear our activities toward the older toddler/preschooler. Even if the kids can't quite do the activities, they will grow into them. It will be fun for them to have a challenge. Some of the best busy bags have several levels. For example: a bag of assorted, color coded letters and a jar to put them in. It could be used for colors first when the child is younger. Then letter recognition as the child gets older. At the same time, it challenges the child to use fine motor.
Here are some concepts that an older toddler/preschool would be working on:
Recognizing patterns, letter recognition sounds/basic reading, consonants v. vowels, beginning math/numbers, memory games, fine motor skills like writing, cutting, tracing, twisting, tying, lacing, etc.
Things that a younger toddler would be working on:
recognizing colors, matching colors, animal sounds, etc.
Busy Bag Swap Logistics:
Please see the activities below for inspiration and so that we don't duplicate any bags that we have done in the past. As people sign up, I will put them and their projects here. Deadline for sign up is Oct 8. At that point, I'll count the number of participants and let you know how many bags to make. Plan on spending about $2-$4 per bag. (But just think of all the cool, priceless bags you will get in return!)
1. Katy Ruotti: Butterfly Symmetry
2. Brittany Heck Jacklin: Dinosaur shapes or herbivore/carnivore
3. Ashley Ring: Velcro Popsicle Sticks
4. Josie Cooper:Nut & Bolt Spelling
5. Melody Leung: Paint chip paperclips
6. Sarah Pagel: Lacing Cards
7. Linda Stilling: Glass Pebble Alphabet
8. Jacqueline Karin: Sorting Game or Popsicle Stick Puzzles
9. Courtney Miller:
10. Alicia Steffen:
11. Heather Vitale:
We will have a playdate to exchange busy bags at my house on Tuesday, November 6th from 9:30-10:30 AM. If you can't make it to the playdate, please arrange with someone else drop off/pick up your bags. You can always drop off earlier in the week at my house.
Busy Bags from the First Swap:
1. Pool noodle and string: The noodle pieces are numbered. Nico has to string them on the climbing rope. Sometimes we do color patterns, sometimes we work on number recognition.
2. Piggy Bank: Nico has to put the money in the piggy bank. We've recently expanded this to using real money and talking about the value of each coin, then sorting & graphing whatever change I found in my purse that day.
3. Pom Pom stuff in: Push the mini pom pom in the hole. This is a bit too easy now. Best for kids around 1.5 year old.
4. Sandpaper/Yarn art: Make shapes/pictures with yarn on sandpaper. We've now expanded this to making letters and numbers.
5. Button Snake: Pass the button through the hole. We do patterns with this now. Ex, red, yellow, green, red, yellow, green, etc.
6. Clothes pin Drop in: Drop the clothes pin in the hole. It was used so much, he's broken all the clothes pins! Now it's a bit too easy.
Sorry...No picture of the Pipe Cleaner & Coffee Cup
7. Pipe Cleaner and coffee cup with holes: We played this one until it was worn out. Nico had to stuff corresponding pipe cleaners in colored holes of a coffee cup.
8. Color craft sticks/Color matching: Since Nico is getting too old for color matching, we breathed new life into this activity by using the sticks to create shapes/letters. I sing, "I can make the letter A, letter A, letter A, I can make the letter A, with my sticks." (Tune: London Bridges) Nico races to create the letter before I'm done singing. Great fun!
9. Sponge Jewelry: In this activity, we thread sponge curlers on pipe cleaners. It's still a bit difficult (for me even!)
10. Egg Carton and eggs: We've used these so many times, I've lost the original, but we always have a set around. We put things in them, sort them, hide them, match them, etc.
11. Fabric fasteners with snaps: Nico can finally do this one! There are 3 fasteners; snap, button & velcro. He still has trouble with the snap. I would love more of these!
Busy Bags from the second swap:
1. Magnetic Pom Poms: We love this one. We use it to be detectives and discover what is metal in the room. We also use it for making patterns, pictures and letters on a cookie sheet. This website has lots of great printables:
http://makinglearningfun.com/themepages/MagnetPagesbyLetter.htm
2. Pom Pom and pinchers: The original pincher broke, but the activity is still good.
3. Alphabet/Number Tracing Dry Erase: Before, I would ask Nico to scribble on the letter. Now he's actually beginning show interest in tracing them.
4. Felt Pizzas: Making pizza is great!
5. Memory Game: We are still working up to getting them all face down. This is a hard concept, but a great challenge for us!
6. Homemade Number Boards: We use these to work on number recognition and counting. Eventually, we'll use it for adding, too.
7. Eric Carle Matching Heads/Tails Game: We match the animals and read it like the story. Sometimes we are silly and put the wrong heads with the wrong tails!
8. DIY Watercolor pages: Just add water and paint!
9. Noodle/bead stringing: Just like the pool noodle/rope, but on a smaller scale.
I don't have a picture of this one. We must have lost it.
10. Seasons Matching Game
11. Clothes Pin Number Match: We finally grew into this one. It's a challenge for us not only to match, but also manipulate the clothes pins.
12. Color Craft Stick Matching Game: This one was great about 6 months ago, but is too easy now. I need to come up with a way to reinvent it for the older toddler.
13. I Spy Game: Lots of things in the bottle. We spy them and then find them on the card. Or, we find it on the card first, then look in the bottle.
14. Paper and colored pencils with Stickers: This is a staple in my diaper bag. We have gone through lots of little notebooks, stickers and pencils.
15. Fishing for Shapes: This might be Nico's all time favorite. He uses the pole with velcro attached to the bottom to fish for shapes. It is great for motor skills and identifying shapes and colors.
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