I am all about busy bags these days. They are so easy to put together and I can pull them out at a moment’s notice to keep a child occupied with something that will actually help them learn. This is one that I have prepped in advance for my preschooler. She’s not at the stage of actually recognizing exact numbers, but she does realize that certain shapes are related to the words. Right now, when she sees a letter or number it’s either an ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘b’ or ‘three’. She says them all at random, so I thought that continuing to expose her to numbers was in order with the hopes that she will begin to recognize specific ones. This Christmas counting to 3 busy bag is perfect for that with its hands-on number exposure.
Materials needed for the Christmas counting to 3 busy bag:
Red, white, and green pom poms
3 cupcake liners
3 pipe cleaners
1 zip top bag
A few months back, I wanted to use some super cute cupcake liners in a sensory bin, but realized that if I just set them in the bin, that you couldn’t actually see the pretty pattern on them. So I decided to turn them inside out and it was perfect! They act as little bowls and they are super adorable! That’s what I did with this bag.
Then I twisted the three pipe cleaners into numbers. If you have a higher skilled child, they could definitely do that step. Shiloh just isn’t ready for that yet.
The pipe cleaner numbers are great because it’s a hands-on creation of the number which is more likely to stay in a child’s mind than a random printed number on a page. They can run their fingers over the numbers to review the formation while they are counting with the number.
After making the numbers, I put them in order and then we counted that number of pom poms into each cupcake liner.
It’s incredibly fast to put together which is a huge plus for me!
Be sure to check out these other great Christmas and winter learning activities:
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