Find over 100 fun and engaging busy bags for toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarten and elementary kids, too — perfect for on the go!

Today I'm sharing another fun winter busy bag...it's our Snowflake Busy Bag! Busy bags are so wonderful if you need a quick activity to keep your little ones busy and quiet. Prepping several busy bags ahead of

My pre-k students, ages 4 1/2 - 5 1/2 years old, do not nap, but the younger ones do. The pre-k's formerly went into the preschool room, but they have SOOOooooo lost privilege due to inappropriate conduct. So now, they are stuck doing quiet activities within my direct sight. I do not want this time to be wasted, and I need them engaged so that boredom doesn't nudge them towards more inappropriate behavior. These children are gifted and/or advanced for their age, so the classic preschool busy bags just won't cut it. I want busy bags that: Hold a (fairly) unique activity Work a specific skill set at multiple levels Have more than one mode of play or Be dynamic, each play being different Are appealing visually and through play Can be contained within about a 1 square foot area Fit easily within a quart sized Ziploc Do not require adult assistance beyond initial instruction They have access to file folder games that use laminated manipulatives. I wanted the buys bags to be different. So far, they LOVE them! They would play with them other parts of the day, but are only allowed to during nap time. Each one works fine motor skills, so I did not list that under SKILLS. Most also work logic/reasoning, but...I'm kinda partial to that one. Here's the ones we have so far and those pending. Each one is explained, in order, below. Alligator Chomp Build and Add Butterfly Symmetry Card Facts Color Links Fish and Chips Frozen Flakes Geo Board Pumpkin Faces (seasonal) Puzzle Race to Odd & Even Ribbon Weaving Silly Sentences Punctuation Sounds & Count Stick Figures Write the Facts Tanagrams In the works, I'll add to post when completed: Animal Habitats I Know Instruments Food Group Gulp Fraction Fun Musical Notation Types of Terrain ALLIGATOR CHOMP Includes: Craft foam alligator, numbers 2-10 playing cards Instructions: Children children place 2 cards down and place the alligator greater than or less than to CHOMP the bigger number. Used cards are placed in a discard pile and new ones drawn. Advanced: use 2 cards added or subtracted for each side. Notes: This may seem rather easy, but they like it, and it teaches a new skill. I have more advanced versions in mind for the future. Skills: Visual quantity identification, greater than/lesser than, 1-1 correspondence counting, logic/reasoning BUILD and ADD Includes: 11 each of 2 colors of unit blocks, laminated activity cards, dry erase marker Instructions: Follow instructions for building, add, write the sum in the box Advanced: write the number that comes before and the number that comes after on either side of the box. Notes: This was a free download that I can't find. If I do I'll add the link, but you can definitely see how it's done. This is a little easy for these children, but it's good practice for writing their numbers. Skills: 1-1 correspondence counting, logic/reasoning, word problems, writing, math vocabulary BUTTERFLY SYMMETRY Includes: 1 cream felt play mat, pattern cards, felt pattern pieces Instructions: Choose a card, place it in the middle of the felt mat, use the pattern pieces to mirror the design on the card. Notes: There is a free download for this activity, but I decided to make my own so I could change out the pieces or increase the complexity to keep it interesting. Skills: Symmetry, logic/reasoning, visual/spatial, observation, geometry CARD FACTS Includes: 2 sets of cards 1-10, laminated addition/subtraction card, dry erase marker Instructions: Choose 2 cards, if doing subtraction place the higher number card on the left, place them above the add/subtract card, write the equation Advanced: use 2 cards added together to create each number. Skills: Number identification, writing, 1-1 correspondance counting, creating and solving equations COLOR LINKS Includes: 1 set of color cards, 1 set of color links Instructions: Choose a card, collect and button that link, choose another card, and add that link to the other one. Advanced: put the cards in alphabetical order prior to putting the links together. Notes: It may seem rather easy, but keeping the links going in the correct direction is more difficult than you'd think. Skills: Color words, color identification, logic/reasoning FISH & CHIPS Includes: 6 each of 3 colors of poker chips, pattern cards Instructions: Choose a card, create that pattern, extend that pattern until you run out of chips Notes: These go from the simple AB pattern to AABBCC. These kids are whizzes at this, but it's good reinforcement. Skills: Patterning, logic/reasoning FROZEN FLAKES Includes: 2 game boards, 1 die, 6 each of two colors of chips Instructions: 1-2 player, roll the die and cover the number rolled, if the number is already covered, lose that turn. Advanced: use 2 die and you have create a double, add, or subtract. Notes: Yeah, not that challenging, but they love it, so it keeps them BUSY. For the younger ones we place the die in a small plastic container with a lid to keep it contained. Free download from Activity Mom. Skills: 1-1 correspondence counting, number vs. quantity, number identification, taking turns GEO BOARD Includes: 1 geo board, 2-3 of each size of rubber band Instructions: Have fun Notes: I purposefully placed just a couple of each size/color rubber bands into here. When they have access to a LOT of rubber bands, they just go nuts with them and start tossing them about. Fewer resources make them more precious, and the children have to work harder to create interesting designs. I was going to include cards for them to match, but right now they enjoy just creating their own designs. Cards may come later. There are a ton of them out there. Skills: geometry, grid manipulation, logic/reasoning, creative expression, architecture PUMPKIN FACES (seasonal) Includes: Pumpkin face cards, pumpkin face mat, pumpkin face pieces Instructions: Pull a card and make a matching face. These range from easy to hard. Notes: Harder than it may look, as the pieces often need to be flipped and rotated Skills: Logic/reasoning, geometry, visual/spatial, observation PUZZLE Includes: 1 puzzle Instructions: Put it together Notes: Changed out regularly, harder puzzles have a picture included, but all their harder puzzles are now missing pieces, thus the busy bags... Skills: logic/reasoning, visual/spatial RACE TO ODD & EVEN Includes: 1 play mat, odd and even number cards Instructions: Choose a card, place it on the appropriate odd or even side. First side to be completed WINS! Advanced: Put the numbers in numerical order when done. Notes: They truly treat this as a race with one side winning. I can change the cards out frequently to keep it interesting and advancing. It is self-correcting. To hinge the two sides, I laminate them separately and use heavy duty packing tape on the back side of the seam. Skills: Odd/even, logic/reasoning, number recognition. RIBBON WEAVING Includes: 1 cream felt play mat, pattern cards, felt pattern pieces Instructions: Choose a card, place it in the middle of the felt mat, use the pattern pieces to mirror the design on the card. Advanced: Create rainbow order. Notes: A seemingly simple activity, but it works a lot of higher-thinking skills Skills: creative expression, logic/reasoning, patterning, sensory stimulation SILLY SENTENCES PUNCTUATION Includes: 1 cream felt play mat, pattern cards, felt pattern pieces Instructions: Choose a card, place it in the middle of the felt mat, use the pattern pieces to mirror the design on the card. Advanced: Some sentences are questionable between an exclamation point and period, leaving it open to their reasoning. Notes: I think they like this better because they helped create the silly sentences. Skills: Reading, grammar, punctuation, logic/reasoning SOUNDS & COUNT Includes: 1 set of cards, red/green/blue clothespins Instructions: Choose a card, place a green clothespin on the beginning sound, a red clothespin on the ending sound (if applicable), and a blue clothespin on the number of items in the picture Advanced: when I make these cards, I increase the difficulty by putting very similar sounds on the same card, making them work a little harder for it. Notes: We have sets of these cards for all our themes. The newer themes include beginning sound, ending sound and number. These are changed out monthly at minimum. It takes a good amount of clothes pins. This amount only does half of the cards, then they have to take them all off to do the other half. I just put a dot on these ones with sharpies, but they aren't hard to paint. Skills: Phonics/letter, 1-1 correspondence counting, number/quantity, logic/reasoning, observation, visual/spatial STICK FIGURES Includes: 2 each of 4 colors of craft sticks, design cards Instructions: Choose a card, create the design, or create your own design Notes: The cards range in difficulty from fairly easy to very difficult. Even I find this one challenging if trying to get all the over/unders correct. Skills: Logic/reasoning, observation, visual/spatial, trial/error, patterns, geometry TANAGRAMS Includes: Set of uppercase tanagram cards, tanagram blocks to create all the cards Instructions: Choose a card, re-create with tanagram blocks, or create your own design Advanced: make your own cards without the shape indicators, or just black/white. Notes: The tanagram cards are a free download. I printed them out with the multiple page option on my printer so that they were smaller. I wanted these children to create FROM the cards, not ON the cards. Since the blocks have a tendency to drift off, I put the quantities needed on the front of the bag for easy inventory and re-stocking. There are a lot of free tanagram cards out there. Skills: Geometry, visual/spatial, logic/reasoning, symmetry, counting, creative expression WRITE THE FACTS Includes: 1-12 bead circles, laminated addition/subtraction fact writing card, dry erase marker Instructions: Choose a bead circle, move some of the beads to each side, write the fact. Advanced: write all the facts in the family. Notes: The child can do as many or as few facts as they wish with a single circle before moving on to another. The circles are made with pipe cleaners cut in half and hot glued into the wooden bead after putting on the pony beads. I tried to make them colorful. The number is written on with sharpie. Skills: Fact families, addition/subtraction, observation, logic/reasoning In there right now, I also have a number writing cheat card, since we haven't been working on writing for very long, and they want to write RIGHT. I also have a couple of seasonal I Spy books in there. Busy Bags are not ALL they do during naptime. They also read books, and magazines, do educational apps on the iPad, and color, among other activities. But most importantly, they are QUIET so the little ones can get their rest. Tags: gifted, advanced, homeschool, homeschooling, daycare, child care, preschool, pre-k, elementary, early, child, children, math, science, language, literacy, Follow Connie -'s board Sensory on Pinterest.

For this Colors and Patterns Busy Bag, children will practice identifying colors and creating patterns using simple materials

I'm obsessed with busy bags. TONS of ideas for busy bags with some free printables to go along with them! Also some ideas for hosting a busy bags swap party

This sewing busy bag teaches early sewing skills as well as being easy to transport to appointments or use in the vehicle.

These empathy activities for kids foster empathy as a social emotional skill in children. Use the empathy beads to build this skill.

This snowflake STEM center is such an easy way to stretch students' learning! Just grab a box of Q-tips and you're ready to go.

Learny McLearnerton’s printables have been moved to my new lifestyle blog. Click here to go to the printables!

Easy ways to make learning fun? It's in the bag.

If you’ve been following this blog for a little while now, you might remember the Toddler Busy Bag Swap that I hosted at my house last fall. A few weeks after I hosted my swap, my friend, Emily, h…

Let the kids have creative, educational fun with this "Deck of Cards Match Game" craft! With materials you likely already have around the house, they can

I'm sharing some experiences and ideas from the recent busy bag exchange I posted. You can read part 1 here and part 2 here. You can see the rest of the ideas I gathered for the swap on this google doc. Today I'm sharing the preschool aged busy bags from...

This Fine Motor Paper Clip Math idea is a fine motor math activity that makes for a great busy bag or calm down time activity. It’s perfect for indoor playtime and hands-on learning. Not only that, but it is a great way to work on fine motor skills like thumb opposition. An open thumb web ... Read more

Last fall, I hosted a pretty massive busy bag exchange with 20 of my girlfriends. We did a toddler aged and preschool aged exchange (and most of us participated in both.) Those posts have a ton of ideas and remain our most popular posts on the blog. The busy bags were a hit with our ... Read more

With the exact same purpose as a Busy Bag, a Cutting Busy Box is essentially a box of supplies and materials designed to keep little ones busy.

Creating a collection of Busy Bags was at the top of my To Do List this summer! My goal was to complete them before our vacation at the end of August, and time was rapidly running out. I finally began to peruse my Pinterest board, and although the ideas were incredible, I didn't have the time to make things from scratch. I had to come up with another idea! It's no secret that I love the Target Dollar Spot! I mean, who doesn't get sucked into the bins of $1 and $3 must have items?!? A few weeks ago, I was searching through the bins for items to keep our kids busy on our road trip, when it hit me: Why not use those items in Busy Bags? It made complete sense! At the beginning of the year, I made activity packs for Lily to play with while Liam was having therapy sessions in our home. It was a great way to organize large groups of items. I keep them in a storage ottoman and we still use them daily! Although we love the mesh activity packs, I wanted something that was easily portable. I wanted a wide variety of items that could be played with in our home, then stashed in our car for play on the go. Enter the Busy Bag Binder! A trip to Target was in order! I picked up the largest binder I could find, bought a bunch of clear pencil pouches (with binder holes) that were on sale for well under a dollar each, gathered some Dollar Spot items, and went to work! Here's what I came up with: Counting Blocks ($1)-Great for teaching Lily basic addition and subtraction, but they can also be used as building blocks! Alphabet Learning Puzzle ($1)-A great matching puzzle perfect for practicing letter recognition! Building Blocks ($1)-Girl colors for Lily! She loves building towers with them! Fairy Tale Friends ($1)-Mini figures for pretend play for my girls. Frozen Matching Game ($1) and Animals Flash Cards ($1)-A game for the girls and flashcards for Liam. Wild Animals ($1)-Pretend Play figures for Liam. Building Blocks ($1)-Different shapes and colors, but just as much fun! Curious George Play Pack ($1) and My Little Pony Play Pack ($1)-Crayons, Stickers, and a coloring book in each pack. Chipboard Lacing Shapes ($1)-Lacing shapes help with fine motor skills! Glitter n Glitz Puzzle ($1)-A more complicated puzzle for Lily. I cut out a small picture from the bag the puzzle came in to use as a guide and placed it in the bag with the puzzle pieces. Sticker Album and Stickers ($1)-This one is mainly for Lily. She loves stickers, and I love that she can fill up a keepsake album! Tangram Puzzle ($3)-I spent the most money on this item, because it was a higher quality wooden puzzle. Lily has to think harder to put it together and Liam can play with it, too! Once the Busy Bags were assembled, it was time to put our Busy Binder together! I created a simple cover and asked Lexie to draw some shapes. I slipped the cover into the front binder pocket, then chose 8 Busy Bags to keep in the binder. I stored the 4 remaining Busy Bags in a mini crate, and plan on swapping the bags every week. I was thrilled with the way my Busy Bags Binder turned out! So was Lily! The Busy Bags can be easily removed for play, then returned to the binder afterward. We have a strict "You must clean up one Busy Bag before you get another" rule in our house! Stay tuned for another round of Busy Bags coming your way soon! The next batch involves paper clips, flash cards, pipecleaners, golf balls, beads, rope, pool noodles, clay, and more! Do you have Busy Bags for your kids? LET'S CONNECT! TWITTER // FACEBOOK // INSTAGRAM // BLOGLOVIN // GOOGLE+ // PINTEREST

Boredom Buster Busy Bagsfor Toddlers and Preschoolers - Keeping Kids Entertains so mom can Be Productive during Social Distancing

A fun way to Teaching Your Kids to Tie Their Shoes.

Yesterday I had the privilege of hosting a literacy bag exchange. WHAT???? Earlier this spring I held a toddler busy bag exchange for my 2 year old with neighborhood moms and I was blown away with the new activities my little guy got! Then I took my new bag of treasures to school and showed my amazing team. ****Then the literacy bag idea was in full planning mode. WH0: k and 1st grade teachers in our county HOW: We have 6 members on our team but only 4 were returning so the four of us invited 3 people each. Then to get some people that we did not know before the exchange, each of our invited guest was able to invite 1 person as their guest!!! We had the potential of having 24 people participate in the exchange. We had 18 people confirm and committ to making 18 games to share with the group!!!!! I am going to share some the 'are you kidding me?' creative activities that we got at the exchange! I am always impressed with the creative genes that are in teachers and the desire to make learning fun! My game was simple--- or should have been! I bought the cutest alphabet clip art on Etsy and made beginning sound clip match up! To jazz up my game I bought wood clothes pins and dyed them 'sunshine orange'. (messy and I have to say my color choice did not look too different from wood grain in the end) Then I added one letter on each clothes pin! You can grab this printable on my new TPT store for FREE.....Here;) Here is a QUICK over view of a few of the games I got yesterday!!!!!! This is sight word pancake flip!!! I love that she included the spatula too! :) I am a blog stalker and a I am always on the hunt for a new game....BUT I have never seen this one...IF you have please tell me! This is from a new and super creative teacher. You play by driving the skateboard over the words as you read them!!! HOW fun? I know my little ones will love this!?!?! This is an old but a goody!! :) You can sort your letters multiple ways! My sweet little ones love to do this at the beginning of the year. Power Towers are ALLLLLLLL over the web and Pinterest! My friend made this work sheet that goes with 4, 3, 2 and 1 letter words. Then she wrote the letters on the bottom of the cups! I loooove the super cute pink container....(run to the Dollar Tree NOW) Everyone loves Roll and Record games. AND I love things that are color coordinated. (This maybe why Lakeshore is not a place I can visit too often) I love how she matched the BRIGHT colored paper to the cube with sight words! This was a SOUND sort...I like how she put the blends into the same spoon. I feel like I may need to invest some more money into spoons. The game possibilities are endless!!! This game was made by a K teacher at my school and she shares my obsession with vinyl. SHE is super creative and really particular about her activities....(SHE SOUNDS LIKE THE PERFECT TEAMMATE....HUH) I love her amazing sort games. She made several of them ending, middle sounds, vowels and she shared this one yesterday. I love the way the vinyl looks on the tray AND I love how she put a red trim on the sort cards! Mystery words.... I know it will be LOOVED by my sweet little ones. First you take a piece of card stock and write the word with liquid glue. Once it is dry you seal it in the envelope. Then the students use their Mysterious Sight Words book to rub over top the envelope and see what the word is!!!! This is way easier to prepare than painting over white crayons because it reusable! I don't know about you BUT I am impressed! There were some amazing games presented! I am blessed to work in a school district that allows us to work together and learn from each other! I know what you are thinking...this is NOT 18 games...YEP you counted right...I will post about the other games later! :)

So, I have been wanting to make a quiet book for my not-so-quiet-at-church children. So I did a search. And let me tell you. There is NO s...

The ultimate curriculum platform for K-12 art teachers. FLEX gives art teachers access to a rich library of standards-aligned curriculum materials so they can save time and focus on teaching and student learning.

Nos EUA é bem comum as pessoas criarem os tais Busy Bags. São saquinhos (ou caixas) com atividades divertidas que sejam capazes de entreter as crianças por alguns momentos. As mães usam bastante e…

Boredom, be gone!

Pong Hau K’i is a traditional Chinese (although it is known by other names in different countries) board game for 2 people.

This comprehensive library of free preschool activities, crafts, lessons & resources will keep your preschooler hands-on engaged and playfully learning...

Have you ever made baked cotton balls? Today we’re sharing one of our newest creative play ideas with baked cotton swabs! These are a colorful manipulative for learning and fine motor play. Today we’re sharing how we made baked cotton swabs and using them in a Kindergarten Preparation busy bag to build letters. This is something ... Read more

The ultimate curriculum platform for K-12 art teachers. FLEX gives art teachers access to a rich library of standards-aligned curriculum materials so they can save time and focus on teaching and student learning.

Mini STEM busy boxes make great quiet time activities, travel activities, and any time play ideas for kids. Our STEM busy boxes are frugal fun for kids.

My kids love their velcro dot sticks and are always coming up with all sorts of designs. Today I thought I would share a few of those designs and give you as a reader a

You can make clip cards ahead of time so they are ready to go… Click file, print, cut out... Fold in half... Place your document inside the laminating pouch. If the document is smaller than the pouch and I haven't got any idea, or time to make something needed in my classroom I usually laminate some sheets of colored paper. I use these laminated papers in many different ways, as bookmarks for example. But you can also write on them with a permanent marker and use them as labels for storage containers, folders etc. My favorite is DIY Write and Wipe Worksheets - You can write on them with dry erase markers and clean them with a paper towel when you are done. The only thing is that it's easy to smear the marker if you touch it, as it never seems to dry on the lamination. And voila! You have a great game. Share this Facebook Twitter Pinterest

These empathy activities for kids foster empathy as a social emotional skill in children. Use the empathy beads to build this skill.

DIY Portable LEGO Kit with 24 Free Printable Activity Cards