Busy Bag Activities- guest post from Two Big Two Little

I’m Tricia from Two Big Two Little, where I share crafts and activities that I do with my children. My kids range in age from 1 to 15, so we usually have a variety of end results to everything 🙂 I’m very excited to be guest posting here at Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails today 🙂

Busy Bag Activities

We have participated in a busy bag swap a few months ago and Sammie really has a lot of fun with some of the busy bag activities that we have received. While looking around on Pinterest, I found some more that I thought Sammie would really like as well. I thought I would share some of her favorite busy bag activities that I have made for her. Sammie loves the book “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” So when I saw the printables at 1+1+1=1, I knew she would have a lot of fun with them. I decided to start with the Heads and Tails section from their Brown Bear printable (I made these up a while ago and I’ve noticed that their graphics for this printable set have changed since I printed them). I printed them onto cardstock and laminated them after cutting them out. Sammie really likes matching them together, as well as mis-matching them on purpose to see what funny looking animals she can make lol. These can also be used as a memory game. I think I might eventually make some more busy bag activities using the Brown Bear printables.

She also really likes these popsicle stick puzzles that I made for her. For these puzzles, I printed some pictures off and glued them onto the tongue depressor sized popiscle sticks. Once the glue was dry, I used an exacto knife and cut the paper between each stick. When I first made them for her, sometimes she had trouble figuring out which piece went with which puzzle. So to make it slightly easier for her, I colored the end of each stick with a bit of marker, so each puzzle has a certain color. I have noticed that as the puzzles get played with some of the paper has started to peel off the sticks. So I think I would put a coat of mod podge or glue over the top of the paper before I cut the puzzles apart.

 Another favorite of our busy bag activities is this color wheel. For this activity, I got some paint chip cards, two of each color  I drew a circle on some cardstock paper and divided into approximately 8 equals parts. In each section I glued a different paint chip color  I found 8 clothes pins and glued a strip of each paint chip color onto one side of the clothes pin. I then laminated the circle and cut it out. When I first made this activity for her, Sammie had a bit of trouble figuring out how to work the clothes pin, but after showing her a couple of times, she got them to work. To make it a bit trickier, I wrote the colour word on the opposite side of the clothes pins. I probably should have wrote the words on the paint chip colors as well. But I didn’t think of doing the words on the clothes pins until after it was laminated. Sammie really likes matching the colors together. She doesn’t really pay any attention to the words on the clothes pins. lol

 Sammie’s favorite of all the busy bag activities, both ones I’ve made and ones from busy bag swaps, is this button snake. To make this activity, I cut a length of ribbon and sewed buttons to each end of the ribbon. I cut a variety of colors of felt pieces into squares and cut an 1″ long slit in the center of each felt square. I decided to sew one of the felt squares onto one end of the ribbon to keep the felt pieces from coming off the end. I made 4 squares of each color. When I first started making this activity, my plan was to make a variety of shapes from the felt as well, but my cutting skills just aren’t that great, so they ended up being all squares lol This busy bag activity is great for working on fine motor skills, coloring sorting, pattern making and just fun 🙂 Sammie really likes sorting the felt pieces into patterns and then putting the pattern onto the ribbon. She also really likes just stringing the felt pieces on in any random order lol

Sammie has a lot of fun with these busy bag activities and many more as well. They work great to keep her occupied while I’m busy or while we are waiting somewhere other than home. I throw a couple of them in my purse and pull them out when we need them.

Tricia is a stay at home mom to 4 great kids, two big kids aged 15 & 13 and two little kids aged 4 and 1. She shares craft, activities and some DIY posts that she does mainly with her girls, one big and one little, although every once in a while the big and little boys join in on the fun 🙂 Her blog is Two Big Two Little and you can also find her at her Facebook page, and Pinterest boards. She can also be found on Twitter

————————————————————————————————————————–I am so thankful to have Tricia from Two Big Two Little guest post for us today. She aways has great ideas she shares on her blog and i love seeing what she comes up with. You should check out her blog or other social medias to follow along too. I have been busy with the new baby and the rest of my boys:-)  I just love these busy bags and can’t wait to try some out for the kids.  I hope you and your kids can enjoy them too.