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Busy Bags are simple and engaging learning activities that young children can do on their own. All of the materials for the activity are stored in a plastic bag or pencil pouch so they are easy to take on-the-go. Busy bags are perfect for toddlers or preschooler when you are waiting in a doctor's office, going out to eat in a restaurant, traveling in a car, or cooking dinner.

For this Colors and Patterns Busy Bag, children will practice identifying colors and creating patterns using simple materials that can easily be taken anywhere you go.

Colors and Patterns Busy Bag:

Supplies:

Set-Up:

Color the dot stickers to match the colors of the pom poms

Stick the colored dots on the popsicle sticks to create simple patterns

How To Play:

Place the pom pom on top of the dot stickers to match the colors and create the pattern.

Extend The Learning:

Let your child color the dot stickers and place them on the popsicle sticks to create his or her own patterns.

Have your child pick up the pom poms with tongs and place them on them on the popsicle sticks to develop fine motor skills.

You May Also Like These Learning Activities:

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Colors and Patterns Busy Bag for Preschoolers -

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Busy Bags are simple and engaging learning activities that young children can do on their own. All of the materials for the activity are stored in a plastic bag or pencil pouch so they are easy to take on-the-go.

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Build a Sundae Cookie Sheet Activities : File Folder Games at File Folder Heaven - Printable, hands-on fun!

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Build a Sundae Cookie Sheet Activities - Click Image to Close

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This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. For our full disclosure policy click here.

My daughter loves her rainbow bear counters! We have been using them for as many learning activities as possible. We've been counting, graphing, sorting colors and so much more! Today we have a rainbow bear color matching game! Shiloh loves our spinner games, so combining them with rainbow bears is the perfect combination for her right now.

Materials needed for the Rainbow Bear Color Matching Game:
Paper Laminating Pouch Laminator Paper fastener Paper clip Rainbow Bears
To prep: Print on card stock and/or laminate. Assemble the spinner by using the paper clip threaded onto the paper fastener.

Alternately, you could use a pencil tip with a paper clip around it instead of the paper fastener, but it is easier for preschoolers to manage with the the spinner already prepared for them.

To play: Simply cover the rainbow bears as the matching colors are spun.

I confess, I love this game because it is so easy to put together! Shiloh loves spinning the spinner and making her rainbow bears have conversations with each other. *wink*

We have used other rainbow counters in the past, but I love the Thinking Kids Math Bear counters that we have now because they include six colors and 3 different sizes of bears giving us even more things that we learn with the bears.

Here are even more Rainbow Activities for you to enjoy! FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
Rainbow in a Bag - No Mess Art // Powerful Mothering

Rainbow Letters Race to the Top // Stay at Home Educator

Color and Shape Match Up // Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Stack a Stone Rainbow // Adventures of Adam

Rainbow Pasta Threading // Play and Learn Everyday

Rainbow Tinker Tray // Still Playing School

How to Flip a Rainbow | Simple Science for Kids // Lemon Lime Adventures

Rainbow Sun Craft // Fairy Poppins

Rainbow Pencil Control Exercises // Sugar Aunts

Beginning Sound Rainbows // Playdough to Plato

DIY Rainbow Crayon Names // Pre-K Pages

Rainbow Puzzle Skip Counting // Creative Inclusion

Rainbow Marble Painting Process Art // Preschool Inspirations

DIY Paper Plate Loom: Rainbow Yarn Art // Sugar Spice and Glitter

Rainbow Sight Words // The Kindergarten Connection

Rainbow Math with a DIY Abacus // Fun-a-Day

Rainbow Fact Family Board Game // Liz's Early Learning Spot

Simple Rainbow Sensory Bottle for Kids // Coffee Cups and Crayons

Rainbow Paint Chip Color Match // Modern Preschool

Roll a Rainbow // The STEM Laboratory

(Not Shown) Rainbow Perler Bead Key Ring // Teach Me Mommy

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Rainbow Bear Color Matching Spinner Game - Life Over Cs

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My daughter loves her rainbow bear counters! We have been using them for as many learning activities as possible. We've been counting, graphing, sorting colors and so much more! Today we have a rainbow bear color matching game! Shiloh loves our spinner games, so combining them with rainbow bears is the perfect combination for her right now.

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This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.

This month for Virtual Book Club for Kids we are spotlighting three books by Donald Crews! I decided to focus on our favorite book... Freight Train... since my toddler loves all things trains!

Shapes are everywhere and my kids have always been really interested in shapes and trying to find them in their environment. Today I am sharing a simple shape train matching activity that gets kids practicing matching colors and shapes using a our giant floor sized train!

To make your own shape train matching activity for your child you just need a few materials...

scissors

colored cardstock (we used the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and black since those are the only colors I have right now)

large roll of white easel paper

tape

circle punch (XXL)

shape printout 1 (on white cardstock)

shape printout 2 (on white cardstock)

black sharpie

white crayon

To get started you need to make your train! Your child can help you or you can prep this part ahead of time.

Start by cutting an train engine out of black cardstock (I printed off an engine outline and traced it on the black and then cut it out).

Next use your circle punch and punch two large circles for each train car and the engine (total of 12 circles).

After that, roll out out your easel paper and place the train pieces on the easel paper starting with the black engine and then moving through the rainbow of colors. Use one piece of colored cardstock per train car. Add wheels to each train car and the engine and your train is built! Secure in place with tape.

Next, grab your shape printouts and cut them out, leaving a thin white edge around each shape.

Use the shapes and a marker or crayon to then trace a shape on each train car (black oval on the black engine, red circle on the red train car, etc).

Write the names of the shape and color on the train car shapes as well so that kids can get used to the seeing the words written out and can begin to identify them.

Now you are ready for the matching activity!!

Place all of the shapes in one spot and encourage your child to find a shape and place it on the correct matching shape train car. You can even hide the shape pieces around your house ahead of time to make this activity even more fun. Laminate the shapes if you want them to be more durable.

Once your child has matched all of the shapes then you can clear them off and play again! We had fun doing little competitions to see how quickly we could match the shapes and if we could say the names of the shapes or the colors of the shapes.

All in all this was a super simple activity to do together and my son was in awe of his giant train the whole time! He thought it was so cool!

It would be super easy to adapt this activity to focus on a different skill like number recognition or alphabet matching. We've made an alphabet matching train before that was really fun too!

Don't forget to check out all of the other awesome crafts and activities being featured this month as part of our Virtual Book Club for Kids. Just click on the links below to head on over to the activities...

Activities to go along with Freight Train

Activities to go along with 10 Black Dots

Activities to go along with Truck

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This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. This month for Virtual Book Club for Kids we are spotlighting three books by Donald Crews! I decided to focus on our favorite book... Freight Train... since my toddler loves all things trains!

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We have been doing a lot of math activities over at our house this week! Today I am sharing a round-up of hands-on math activities for preschoolers. I'm hoping this will be a good resource for you moms of preschoolers! Here we go....
1. Patterns with Bears
Counting Bears are a great math manipulative to use with preschoolers. You can sort, count, or use them with patterns. I created some pattern cards to help with this. The first page is an AB pattern, meaning two colors alternate in the pattern. The second page is an ABC pattern, meaning three are three colors in the pattern. For this activity, your preschooler will set the colored bear on top of the matching color to create a pattern. On the ABC pattern cards, the last circle is left empty. That is for your child to tell you what color it should be.

You can get your free printable here -> Color Pattern Printable

Math Skill: Patterns and Relationships
2. Sorting Colors with Bears
Sorting is a skill preschoolers should work on a lot. One way to sort is by color and we do this with our counting bears and a sorting mat. To download your free copy of this click here -> Color Sorting Mat
Math Skill: Patterns and Relationships
A fun way to work on sorting is with a money muncher! To see all the fun details, click here.
Math Skill: Patterns and Relationships
Anytime we work with candy, my kids love it! You can sort M&Ms or jellybeans or whatever! To see how we did this with jellybeans, click here.

You can also use this printable with sorting candy -> Jelly Bean Math
Math Skill: Patterns and Relationships 5. Graphing Transportation
Graphing is always good to introduce to preschoolers. It doesn't have to be complex, but you can do a simple activity like graphing the types of transportation on a bar graph and use small pictures or toys (or I used erasers from The Dollar Tree).
Math Skill: Patterns and Relationships 6. Shape Wheel
This is a fun activity for learning shapes! Just print this shape wheel and draw the same colored shapes onto clothespins. Have your child match the clothespin to the shape on the wheel. This is great for working on fine motor skills!

To get your free shape wheel, click here -> Shape Wheel
Math Skill: Geometry 7. Shape Sorter
An easy way to practice shapes is with a Shape Sorter! You can buy these at Michaels Craft Store for just $1! Check out this post for details.
Math Skill: Geometry
A neat sensory activity and fun way to learn shapes is with noodles! See the post here to pick up your free shape cards.
Math Skill: Geometry 9. Foam Sticks
Learn shapes in the tub with these foam sticks! You can see how we did this here.
Math Skill: Geometry 10. Dice Game
This is a really fun game! I took this Melissa & Doug wooden toy and put white circle stickers on the top of the pegs. I wrote numbers 1-6 and had 2 stars. I had my son roll the dice and whatever number it landed on, he would pound with a toy hammer. If the number he rolled was already down, he hit the star. Not only was this fun for him, but he was able to "subitize", which simply means to recognize numbers instantly without counting the dots.
Math Skill: Number Concepts
Practice counting and recognizing numbers with star number cards. Grab the printable here!
Math Skill: Number Concepts 12. Ladybug Math
We made these adorable ladybugs and they were a hit! Not only were they fun to play with, but we did a lot of counting and sorting with them. Read all about it here.
Math Skill: Number Concepts
Learn the order of numbers with this really fun game involving balloons! Check out the details here.

Math Skill: Number Concepts
14. Estimating with Water
We learned about estimation with a dropper last summer when we did water activities. We also did estimation here when we were playing with our foam bits sensory bin.
Math Skill: Measurement 15. Pouring and Comparing
We practiced pouring skills with rice into these beakers. Then I had my son line them up from biggest to smallest. Using comparative words like big/small or empty/full help teach preschoolers about simple concepts of measurement. This is simple and you could elaborate on this activity.
Math Skill: Measurement
Hope you enjoyed this round-up of math activities!

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Hands-On Math Activities for Preschoolers

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We have been doing a lot of math activities over at our house this week! Today I am sharing a round-up of hands-on math activities for preschoolers. I'm hoping this will be a good resource for you moms of preschoolers! Here we go.... 1.

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This train color sorting activity is a fun way for young children to practice color recognition and sorting. My toddler and preschooler both enjoyed it!
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.
This month the featured book for the Virtual Book Club for Kids is The Little Engine That Could. My kids love this book!

As you know, I really love it when an activity can be differentiated to meet the needs of my toddler and my preschooler. To my surprise, this was one of those activities. My toddler enjoyed it, but my preschooler did too!
Supplies Needed:
Preparing the Train Activity

1. Cut the sheets of construction paper in half - except for the black one.

2. Cut out two circles for each of the train cars from the black paper. These will be the wheels.

3. Print out a picture of a train engine and trace it onto black paper. Then cut it out. You could also freehand it onto the black paper if you have more skills than I do.

4. Put the train engine and train cars in order on the floor. I would recommend taping each piece down with painter's tape so that they don't slide around like ours did.

5. Collect a bunch of small manipulatives and toys in the colors you used for the train cars.

Train Color Sorting Activity

I placed a pile of manipulatives on the ground next to the train and then encouraged my toddler and preschooler to sort the objects out to the corresponding train cars. My toddler loved doing this. She got a kick out of matching the colors.

To my surprise, my preschooler enjoyed doing this too. I extended the learning for him by asking him to add a certain number of items to a train car or to count the items in each of the train cars.

I love that this is so simple to pull out and use again. It takes me about two minutes to lay the train cars out and gather the manipulatives.

Check out all of the other The Little Engine That Could Activities below!
Here are some more color learning activities I think you will enjoy! Roll a Color Alphabet Game Monster Munch Color Sorting Activity Flower Hunt by Color Activity

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This train color sorting activity is a fun way for young children to practice color recognition and sorting. My toddler and preschooler both enjoyed it! This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. This month the featured book for the Virtual Book Club for Kids is The Little Engine That Could .

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When it is raining it means a lot of indoor time, but it doesn't always have to be boring! Recently i did this quick and easy little activity for Hailey to help keep her busy on one of those particularly long and rainy days.

For me it was a win-win activity not only did she have fun But it also helped her improve her counting and color matching! YAY!

This by far has to be one of the easiest projects to make!

Anyways i had some pom poms and magnets

Glued a little piece of the magnet to the pom pom...this was kind of the tedious part...lol

Once i finished that i put the activity sheet on a cookie sheet

The excitement is building...she can't wait!

Magnets stick to the cookie sheet...i LOVE it!

She loves it too!

One rainy day activity down....here's to hoping the sun wants to come back and visit us!

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When it is raining it means a lot of indoor time, but it doesn't always have to be boring! Recently i did this quick and easy little activity for Hailey to help keep her busy on one of those particularly long and rainy days.

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Minne-Mama is on Facebook! 'Like' us to stay updated on our fun crafts and activities!
Thank you for stopping by!

The idea for this fun activity came from my friend and the mama of one of Skyler's best buddies (who also, I think, happens to be Skyler's first little crush - he is always talking about her!). She told me about it when we met at the library for story time. She cut holes in a big cardboard box and they used colored balls to put in the different colored holes! I knew I wanted to make a similar activity for Skyler, because we are all about color sorting in our house right now!

I didn't have a cardboard box that would have worked to cut six holes on the top of, big enough to put balls through, so I started brainstorming other ideas. I decided to use a tri-fold poster board.

I had a bowl that I could fit down the poster board perfectly three times, so I opened the poster board and traced around the bowl six times, two by three down the poster board. Since I am going to have the back of the board showing, I traced them on the inside of the board, so any pencil markings wouldn't show.

When I finished tracing the holes, I cut them out carefully with a X-acto knife.

After cutting out the traced circles, our poster board was ready to toss our colored toys through, but not yet complete. Next, I had to give each of the holes a color so Skyler knew where to put the different colored objects.

To make the color around the holes, I traced the bowl that I used on the tri-fold poster and the next size up to make a ring onto poster board (which I used so it would hold up after a lot of use!) After tracing six rings, I cut them out, leaving them as squares (or close to squares).

We painted the back of the squares to leave the pencil markings free of paint. To make them really colorful, we used the same color mixing technique we did for our color sorter and fine motor caterpillar and then we painted with sponges! This was our first time painting with sponges, and Skyler had a lot of fun.

Once the pieces of poster board were dry, I cut out our rings and put them onto the tri-fold board.

I knew we would use our ball pit and colored sensory balls to toss through the holes of our poster board (though we haven't used them yet - the bean bags are really fun to toss!), but I thought it would be fun to make some colorful bean bags for Skyler to throw as well. To make these simple bean bags, I cut pieces of felt into quarters and filled them will popcorn kernels. I started putting them together with spray adhesive and then switched to hot glue gun because it was a lot faster and held together better.

I left some room on the side because I knew that I was going to cut off part of the bag, so they would be more of a square shape when completed. Before and after cutting off the excess felt.

To finish our poster board, I wrote the color words next to the different holes with crayon and to make our color game a bit more cute, I used the extra felt to make bunting along the tri-fold board. I added them with hot glue and our fun new color sorting activity was complete!

This activity was a huge success with my honey! I knew Skyler would like it and have fun putting the bean bags through the holes, but I was impressed with how accurately he was able to identify the colors. I made this game more as a teaching tool, but it ended up being more of a fun practice! I found it absolutely adorable how he would stand in front of the board and look down at the color he had in hand, then carefully look around the board before placing the bean bag in the correct hole! We played with this game all afternoon and I know this color sorting activity and gross motor play (I put the bean bags across the room so he has to run and get a new one every time!) will be popular in our home for a very long time!

Skyler says purple and blue frequently, and can say red, green, and yellow. He said orange for the first time when playing this sorting activity though!

Completing this activity took a lot of steps, but none of them required much time and the overall amount of time I put into making it will be so worth it in the end. I loved using the tri-fold board because it is so sturdy and I can easily store it behind the desk in our living room when it folds up. This game will last us forever, and we will be able to use it different ways as Skyler grows. I know we will use this activity at least for the next year or two.

Another way to play for older children would be to do 'color math' and instead of just finding the colors you could use a prompt like: "Red + Blue = ?" or "Green - Yellow = ?" You could also do two at a time "These two colors make Orange."

(Edit 4/13/14)

Skyler and I pulled out this favorite activity and tried it with our ball pit balls for the first time! It was a lot of fun. We especially enjoyed tossing the balls through the holes. It was harder than it would seem ;) It was so cute seeing Skyler try to throw it in usually say "I miss!" and laugh like crazy. He did throw them in a few times. He also had fun clacking them together and referring to them as the instruments like our percussion tubes!

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Minne-Mama is on Facebook! 'Like' us to stay updated on our fun crafts and activities! Thank you for stopping by! The idea for this fun activity came from my friend and the mama of one of Skyler's best buddies (who also, I think, happens to be Skyler's first little crush - he is always talking about her!).

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This matching colors clip it wheel is a super fast way for your kids to practice matching colors. It's part of our When You Only Have A Minute learning activities series that you can download for free.

I can hardly believe that this is the first color-specific post I've added to the blog! Seems crazy, I'd best get around to adding more.

What you need:

Download this Matching Colors printable... it's free!

Find some small (or regular) pegs, or any clip-type objects that will allow the kids to attach the pictures to the color wheel.

Scissors and blu-tac, glue or adhesive tape.

How to prepare:

Print the color page on to card stock so it's nice and firm.

Cut out the color wheel and the pictures

Attach the pictures to small pegs (or whatever you have). I used blu-tac because I like to be able to quickly re-use my pegs, but if your kids are bound to pull the pictures off you might prefer to glue them on!

Laminating could be a good option to keep the pieces looking good.

How to play matching colors:

Children simply look at a picture, decide which color it matches most accurately on the color wheel, and clip it into place. There are four pictures for each color, although you can only see three on these pictures.

Have you downloaded this printable yet?

If not, click here and the Color Matching printable will automatically start downloading!

The graphics are by Educlips and From the Pond.

Looking for more on colors?

These 11 teeny tiny color books can be found on Teachers Pay Teachers for only $2.00

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Matching Colors When You Only Have A Minute - Liz's Early Learning Spot

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This matching colors clip it wheel is a super fast way for your kids to practice matching colors. It's part of our When You Only Have A Minute learning activities series that you can download for free. I can hardly believe that this is the first color-specific post I've added to the blog!

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by -
This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy.

Today is Day 15 of our 31 Days of Indoor Fun for Toddlers series and we had a little fun with cereal. We used Froot Loops (don't judge) for this super simple sorting activity. :)

Sorting is such a beneficial cognitive development activity for toddlers and preschoolers because it first requires the child to identify objects and then classify those objects based on similarities and differences. A lot of wheels turning in the brain for something that seems so simple!

After I printed out the mat, I laminated it so that we can use it over and over again!

Give your child the cereal and the mat and let him/her get busy! Inevitably, your child will end up eating just as much as she is sorting, but that is sort of the point. :)

Little Sister needed some assistance from me, but did a lot of the sorting on her own.

This simple activity offers a great opportunity to review color names.

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Printable Cereal Sorting Mat - I Can Teach My Child!

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by - This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy. Today is Day 15 of our 31 Days of Indoor Fun for Toddlers series and we had a little fun with cereal. We used Froot Loops (don't judge) for this super simple sorting activity.