Busy Bags for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Busy bags are a great way to keep your little one entertained while also incorporating education concepts into their play. Busy bags take a small amount of time to prep and put together, but once you have them done, they can provide hours of play for your preschooler.
Busy bags are also great for on-the-go entertainment. We’ve taken our busy bags to the doctor’s office, on road trips, and to restuarants! They are easy to toss into the diaper bag and easy to clean up as well.
Here is a link to the bags that I use to create my busy bags. I like them because they are large enough to fit an 8.5×11 sheet of paper meaning that many of my printable mats will easily slide in and out of the bag. We store all of our busy bags in a container meant for file folders, like this one.
As I mentioned earlier, it can take some time to prep your busy bags. In order to make them last for multiple uses, I always laminate any paper items. I have been using the same laminating machine for close to 4 years now and it still works great! Here is the link to the one I use. I also love that it has the paper trimmer and corner rounder. I always suggest to use the corner rounder after laminating to avoid sharp edges in the plastic.
Pop It Challenge
My kids love pop-it’s and I love that we have found a way to play with them that also challenges their minds! I created these puzzles using an octagon pop-it (if you don’t have one, you can grab one here for super cheap). The printable includes 4 different puzzles. You can also easily make your own pop-it puzzles by simply tracing your childs pop-it, adding circles, then putting X’s over certain circles.
Here is the PDF version of the pop-it puzzles for you to enjoy at home!
Pom Pom Sudoku
I have always been a fan of the classic style sudoku and was excited to create a kid’s version for my two older kiddos! This game works just like the classic version with numbers. You have four colors: red, blue, yellow and orange. Each quadrant must have all four colors, each vertical row must have all four colors and each horizontal row must have all four colors. The printable includes four sudoku puzzles as well as a key in case you need a little help! Both my 4 and my 6 year old enjoyed this activity!
Here is the link to download the PDF version of Pom Pom Sudoku to print at home!
Counting Bears Pattern Practice
My four-year-old is really loving patterns at the moment so I made this bust bag just for her! I cannot even being to tell you how many fun activities we’ve made including these bears (We purchased them from Amazon years ago! Here’s the link)
This printable includes 9 pattern practice cards. There is a combination of ABAB, ABBA, AABAA, as well as ABCABC patterns. I have also included a blank card so your little one can practice making their own patterns!
You can download the counting bears pattern practice PDF here.
Beginning Sound Clip Cards
This activity is both great for practicing beginning letter sounds but also incorporates fine motor skills!
Coin Sorting Mat
Both of my kids love anything involving coins. I added about 20-30 coins to a busy bag with this printable and it was a huge hit. I started by having them sort all coins, then count how many they have of each coin. We talked about how much each coin was worth and the characteristics of each coin as well.
You can download the coin sorting mat here!
Magna-Tile Puzzles
Magna-Tiles have been a staple in our playtime activities for years. They are fun, colorful, and provide hours of endless play. Taking all of our magna-tiles on the go would be a huge hassle, so I created a few magna-tile puzzles so that we could take just a few with us and still have a ton of fun!
If you do not have a set of magna-tiles, I cannot recommend them enough. You can read more reviews from parents who love them here.
You can download the magna-tile puzzles here!
Letter Hunt
All you need to create this is an empty water bottle, alphabet beads, and regular beads. Add all the beads to a bottle and *seal the cap* (this is a very important step to avoid a big mess!). Add the bottle, a pen, and a checklist with every letter of the alphabet to a busy bag and you’ve just created an educational game that will keep your one occupied until every letter is found!
Popsicle Stick Puzzles
Another simple yet challenging brain buster for preschoolers! These cards are set up in a way that challenges children to not only re-create the picture on the card with the popsicle sticks but also identify which stick to put down first, second, and so on. If you do not have a set of rainbow popsicle sticks at home, here’s a link for a set that delivers next day on Amazon!
Here is the link to download the 8 popsicle stick puzzle printable
Popsicle Stick Matching Game
I love that this activity took me less than 5 minutes to set up. I used large popsicle sticks and color coding dot stickers (I purchased a package of 2400 of these about 3 years ago and still have some to this day!). Very inexpensive with endless possibilities Here is the link).
I simply placed two popsicle sticks side by side, added the stickers, then used an x-acto knife to slice them down the middle.
