Beans! Sorting, Counting! Busy Bag Idea

Grab an old sheet and let's get started! 

We use this old blue one for everything! I'm sorry if you have seen it in other posts and upcoming posts! It's just so handy to have around the house! 

I purchased three bags of dried beans at our local store. Buy whatever colors strike you as fun. I also focused on getting different sizes. 1 bag of large white beans, 1 of black beans, and 1 pinto beans. 

I get out just about anything that can scoop or move beans. 

We gather containers, funnels, measuring scoops, table spoons, everything that's fun! 

Let them scoop and dump, make piles, spread them around (within reason).

This is a great sorting activity! Help provide your kids with vocabulary such as largest, smallest, big, bigger, biggest.... 

please excuse the yucky picture, I bet you can get the gist

We got silly and starting making food troughs for our animals and pools for them to swim. 

Do whatever your kids want with this, just talk with them. It's so important to teach conversation skills and teach them the vocabulary by modeling it for them!!! I can't tell you the number of 5th graders I teach that lack, what we think is basic vocabulary, and the ability to hold a full conversation. Many don't even respond "How are you?" if they are asked the question first. 

All I can stress is TALK with your children! YOU are their first and MOST teachers!!!!

Letter Races - Letter Practice

First, If you don't own letter mats, get some! I found mine at the consignment shop - super cheap! They are a blast. 

We have the out and about most of the time. My children work best when we rotate toys in and out of our playroom/family room. I got these back out when grandma came to visit - any extra back up activities are always appreciated. 

Kids LOVE jumping! I asked if he wanted to jump/stomp (as a dinosaur) on letter tiles - of course that was a YES! 

 

I started by throwing tiles on the floor and asking him to find the letter and jumping on it. It was a good refresher to call/drop them on the floor in order and let him jump on them right as they fell.

We called a few of his favorites several times so he could really stomp.

Send the kids on a hunt for certain letters and let them call letters out to you. He loved telling me to find various letters then saying, "Good Job, Mommy"!!!! Kids love to teach also, give them the chance! 

When people get the chance to teach, they learn 90% of what is presented to them!!!!!!

Let them teach you!!!

We created our letter race track. He and I would find the letters and connect them in order. We took turns so he wouldn't burn out.

Even, little lady and our pup started racing and having a blast!

I started calling letters as he ran. CP would run up and down until he found it and jumped/stomped/sat/squatted on that tile. He was ecstatic when he got it correct. He's normally very good with his letters, so this was hysterical!

 

 

Finally, he started jumping and moving his legs out from under him, landing on his bottom. Hysterical!

 

Have fun with letters, make things a game, and always talk to your child giving them the words to communicate with you!

Homemade GAK!!! Busy Bag Activity

Who doesn't remember playing with GAK as a kid!!! 

 

Found an easy recipe, of course on Pinterest, and had a blast on our rainy day creating a fun activity. 

http://simplykierste.com/2012/05/oh-what-do-you-do-in-the-summertime-featured-guest-lil-luna.html

 

Little man had the job of squeezing the glue into the bowl. He loves to make a mess and it was great to have permission to do so. 

 

He chose the colors. We made the first batch green. It was definitely a Pinterest Fail. We got it the second time!!! It's AWESOME!!!!

 

The Pinterest fail was just too dry I used a bit too much Borax. 

 

He was in charge of mixing or stirring the color into the glue. 

 

It took a few minutes to mix in all the water and it was soooooo much fun massaging the mixture. 

 

He walked around with his container of GAK for the next ten minutes so proud of his mix and showing daddy and his sister how he made it. 

 

Keep it in an air tight container for use later. 

A fantastic idea for a busy bag is to make a batch and split it into smaller portions. Put the portions in baby food jars to pass out at your next exchange. 

Letter Stickers

Calling all moms who are looking for another idea to practice letters. 

 

I purchased poster letter stickers on a whim one afternoon. 

What a great purchase!!!! I originally was thinking fun cheap stickers, however, it has turned into so much more! 

 

I gave little man the stickers for his name and he pulled the paper back off and put them on the paper. 

He decided that it wasn't enough just to have the stickers. He needed to make a border for each letter. Which was AWESOME, since he was outlining each letter! 

(Practicing letters all on his own) 

We spell his name to him all the time and he was writing C and L over and over.

 

 I encourage him to use various mediums to enhance his art. We had painted earlier in the day and spent time practicing using colored pencils while his sister was sleeping (she likes to try to eat them, good ideas from a 11 month old). It was time to bust out the crayons.

  

The letters were inspiring. He found his favorite letter H. Not sure where that came from but he points how "big H" anytime he sees one. Today we used the letter sticker to demonstrate how to make his letter H. 

 

We used the pattern 'line, line, cross' to practice making about four dozen H's today. It was exciting to see him start writing. 

 

Dyed Pasta Busy Bag Activity

Our Mommies' group did a busy bag exchange. 

It was wonderfully successful!

 

One fabulous mommy (I was able to join up with a great group of mom's who are all extremely helpful, supportive, smart, and all absolutely fabulous!!!), spend so much time dying pasta and cutting colored circles for muffin tin sorting.  

Great site to get instructions on dying pasta for kids activities :

http://www.manylittleblessings.com/how-to-dye-pasta-for-kids-crafts/

 

Cut colored circles to match whatever colors you decide to die your pasta. 

Tape or glue them on the bottom of a muffin tin. 

  

 Spend time sorting colors. Talk about colors. Discuss how different noodles can have the same color even though they are different shapes, sizes, widths, or lengths.

 

The mom who created this busy bag for us also gave us cups with each type of pasta attached (hot glued) to the top for sorting types of pasta.

 

Again: This is an opportunity to increase your child's vocabulary. Discuss how the same pasta can be different colors. Practice sorting styles, see if your child can focus both colors and type.

 

I also let my 1 year old (oh my goodness, she just turned one, where did the time go!) also play with noodles, however, she is a mouther so I have an eye on her constantly. She does love to feel the various textures and spread them around her tray. 

Mr. Director

CP became Project Manager. 
We repainted our dining room and my husband is building the most amazing shaker style wainescoating! Well, someone woke up hard from his nap so he needed to be with daddy. I set him up in his sister's highchair (keeping him contained while paint was drying) and he had his snack. 


While sitting there, he started telling daddy where to paint and what he needed to be doing. He had a blast. I realized, quickly, that he was practicing such wonderful vocabulary and building complex sentences. We started using the "manager" game to do different things around the house. 

-  Have your child tell you where the toys go as you are picking WITH them! They have to pick up too otherwise, they don't get to be "the manager". Kids start to learn vocabulary for different places around the house and learn nice ways of telling people information without being bossy. 

- Try doing dishes together. 

- Feeding animals/pets

- Fold blankets or clothes (depending on the age)

    

- Sorting animal toys/ different balls/ blocks/ letters/ pictures/ numbers into categories. - Teach them how it looks to think about how to sort things. 

***Remember**** Demonstrate to your kid what it looks like to give information and not be bossy. No matter what the age (I see this with fifth graders daily), you need to show them what the expected behavior looks like and vocabulary sounds like. It will help create a very thoughtful kid! I promise!!!