Hooray! I have finally neared completion of our preschool/toddler activity bags — just in time for the new school year (ours will start on August 25th). Here is a list of everything I’ve assembled. I put them in Easy Zipper Ziploc gallon-sized bags so the kids could clean up and close the bags without assistance when they are finished.
(I still have more I will add; I will post new bags as I create them.)
1. Clothesline play (rope clothesline, mini wooden clothespins, cloth diapers, and doll clothes).
2. Lacing cards (rainbow laces purchased separately from Montessori Services, and handmade foam shapes for lacing — I couldn’t find any lacing cards to buy for less than $15, so I was forced to get creative and thrifty).
3. Bear counters (three colors and three sizes of plastic bears for counting/sorting).
4. Square tiles for counting/sorting.
5. Open & close (various items to open and close — boxes, hair barrettes, empty makeup compacts, mini plastic bottles).
6. Alphabet & number magnets (to use with small cookie sheet).
7. Pom-pom sorting (1″ multicolored pom-poms with various tweezers and grabbers).
8. Viewmaster with slides.
9. Geoboard with rubber bands (for geometric introduction, dexterity, AND open-ended creative designs).
10. Buttons! (tons of buttons I found for $2 at a closeout education store; for sorting, counting, etc.).
11. Various pasta shapes (for sorting).
12. Nuts, bolts, and washers.
13. Rubber insects (for sorting/counting/pattern completion).
14. Paper plate alphabet caterpillar (a leftover from our Unplugged Week).
15. Transportation memory game (any memory game will work).
16. “Magnetic Personalities” (Photos of family AND cartoon characters with tops and bottoms separated, glued onto magnetic paper — just for open-ended mixing and matching fun).
I lined them all up in a wicker laundry basket, left in an accessible spot in the study/school room so the kids can pull them out at leisure.
I took many of my ideas from this website. Several of the “Montessori style” activities were ideas gleaned from Montessori supply catalogs.
If you make your own PABs (or TABs), I’d love you to drop me a link of your finished products! I am always open to new ideas for more.
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Shannon (4 years ago)
Are you finding the foam lacing cards sturdy enough? I would love to make some for Josh but am concerned that they are too …I do not know….floppy. What do you think?
megret (4 years ago)
Well, the foam I found was a bit sturdier than other brands I’ve tried (I found this at Michael’s). I found if the laces get hung up and the children TUG at them, the shapes DO bend….but for the most part, they work pretty well. For as little as they touch this activity (it isn’t their top favorite), I figured foam will work for a while.
I’d love to make some out of images printed onto cardstock and mounted onto chipboard — but I’m unsure about how I’d punch holes through something that thick.
jodi (4 years ago)
great job – I so need to get started on something like that for W! Such great inspiration.
As far as punching through chipboard – there are several scrapbooking products designed for such a task…the cropadile is one of them (and now there’s a cropadile II “big bite” with a longer reach” – if you use the 40-50% off coupons that Michaels, ACMoore, etc put out frequently, you can get the basic cropadile for around $14.
I also wondered about laminating cardstock – how do you think that would work? would it be too flimsy for the task?
thanks again!
Capturing Today (4 years ago)
I’ll have to make some of the lacing foams to go with the ones I’ve done and the geoboard is one my daughter would like too. Here is a link to the ones I’ve put together so far – they are a big hit. I don’t know why I didn’t do these sooner!
<a href=”http://capturing-today.blogspot.com/2008/07/preschool-activity-bags-wfmw.html”
Jen (4 years ago)
I love these ideas! I have my ECE but I don’t do as much of my “ECE learnt stuff” with my own children – shame on me!
I should do up some of these bags though!
Thanks!
As for the lacing cards – we had to make them when I was in ECE and we used large poster board cut into shapes… it’s sturdy enough I think! :)
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I LOVE this idea! I have all this old teaching stuff from my teaching days. It sits on a shelf in my garage ’cause that’s the only place I can fit it. When the kids bring the stuff in, it gets misplaced in their toy bins. I love your idea of having everything in a Ziplock in a bin or basket. Thanx for the idea!!!
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jennifer perkins (2 years ago)
So many cute ideas thank you! I love the magnetic personalities. I have been wondering what to do with all the books in my toddlers collection that are getting too beat up to read, yet I can’t bring myself to throw away. I had thought about a paper doll idea and now that I see your pictures it’s a done deal I’m doing it!
Thanks for the homemade lacing card ideas too!
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Rachel (10 months ago)
Ohhh! I love all of these bags! The Lacing, pom-poms, and magnet ones are my favorites!
I’d love if you’d link up to my Teaching Time post!
http://philwife.blogspot.com/2012/08/teaching-time-for-toddlers-musical.html