I started my website years ago to share ideas with other moms about how I keep my kiddos busy, learning and engaged with activities.
I have four little ones of my own, and I have been both a K-5 classroom teacher as well as a homeschool mom.
I hope you enjoy these FREE activities! They are geared for children about 18 months - 5 years old.
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We absolutely love learning through play! I use themed sensory bins in my classroom with students and at home with my own kiddos.
Kids love playing I Spy, so I created these FREE printable mats.
LEARNING COLORS
Toddlers and preschool students love to learn about colors. There are so many fun activities you can do with your kiddos that work on other skills at the same time including sorting, coloring, fine motor and even beginning reading skills while you’re teaching your child about colors.
These adorable worksheets are a fun way to explore and learn about colors!
When I am teaching my little ones about colors, we do one color a week. We collect things around the house that are a specific color and then color the worksheet.
We then practice spelling the color word. A fun and easy way to explore the colors around us.
Color Sorting Sensory Bins are another favorite with my kiddos. I keep all the little things we collect in a tub and then we can practice sorting.
I put a few handfuls of cute little objects in a bowl of rice, and lay the color cards out. There are pros and cons to cutting the cards apart. I prefer to actually keep it as a mat, but if you’re sorting larger objects you’ll probably have to cut the cards apart.
You can collect items from around the house, or if you want new objects for your child to explore, you can grab a cute variety pack HERE
Grab this FREE printable pack HERE
These activities are part of my larger printable pack HERE
LEARNING SHAPES
Sensory bins are one of my favorite ways to teach toddlers and young children new skills.
Children are naturally engaged with these hands-on bins and sorting is so much fun.
Print these cards, cut apart and laminate (optional) and added your shapes to a bin or beans or rice. Children can explore each shape and discuss sides, corners, edges, etc.
If you need specific shapes, we use pattern blocks (we use these for so many activities you’ll see on this blog post!)
I am not sure why, but kids absolutely love these jumbo buttons too. Without fail, my own children as well as my students just love playing with these.
To make your own colored rice, I simply mix hand sanitizer and food coloring and then dump white rice to the mixture.
Print these FREE cards here HERE
These shape posters are perfect to laminate and hang up, or you can use them as spelling/handwriting practice.
Print these for FREE HERE
These cards are perfect for teaching your child about pattern blocks! Every child absolutely loves playing with pattern blocks - building animals, shapes, towers, patterns and more.
We use these pattern blocks - the same ones for our shape shorting sensory bin.
Print these FREE cards HERE
ANIMAL MATCHING
This is my absolute favorite activity for 18 month - 3 year old children.
In this Montessori inspired activity, children match the mini animals to the animals on the cards. All four of my children have loved this game, and it is just the cutest to watch them engage with this activity.
Print these mats, laminate and cut apart if you choose, and your children are ready to learn all of these animals. It is absolutely adorable to see their little brains working hard. My favorite is when they make the little animal noises as they are matching.
I made these free animal cards to match these mini animal kits:
Five sets of 12 animals come in each pack (60 mini animals in each) so you may consider splitting these with a friend to make busy bags, or this is such a cute, inexpensive party favor kit or gift. If you’re a teacher, it is so nice to have five sets so the children can each have their own at a center.
Print the FREE cards here:
If your children are in preschool or kindergarten, or you want to share more information with your toddlers about animals, you can see my animal reports and information reading and writing units HERE
FRUIT PATTERNS AND MATCHING
Children can match the fruit to the picture/word cardsFollow the fruit patterns and even fill up their baskets with fruit to match the pattern cards.
This is such a fun activity for practicing left to right directionality when reading patterns, following directions and problem solving, matching and so much more.
I made the cards to match this adorable fruit kit HERE
Print this FREE busy bag kit CLICK HERE
Just print, cut the cards and pattern strips apart and your toddler or preschool child will have so much fun with this kit.
My girls like to play that they are selling at a fruit stand too. The jumbo tweezers that come in this kit are so fun.
DIY TODDLER BUSY BAGS
MAGIC RIBBON CUP
This is a super easy and fun activity for younger toddlers. This simple little snack cup serves so many purposes.
Not only do we love using the cup for snacks like Cheerios, goldfish, etc. but it also serves a fun little busy bag.
I cut up ribbon, tulle or use large color chips and my 18 month old loves to pull the ribbon and tulle out (think tissue box or wipes container!) she will do this over and over again.
To then switch it up, she loves to place the chips into the container. Fill, dump, repeat. It works on hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, etc.
This is a super easy busy bag to put together.
JUMBO NUTS AND BOLTS
My 18 month old will sit and play with these jumbo nuts and bolts for a good 20 minutes.
We work on matching the colors, talking about the shapes and learning how to hold with one hand and twist with the other. I cut up pieces of foam and make slits in them. This adds an extra challenge for her that she enjoys!
There are a few brands of these nuts and bolts out there, but these nuts and bolts are definitely our favorite.
They twist together nicely and are perfect for little hands to work with. I also like that the nuts and bolts that are supposed to go together are the same color.
ICE CUBE TRAY TRANSFER
This is another easy busy bag to put together, and anything with tongs is always a hit with my little ones!
I put all the mini color poms in a bowl, give my toddler plastic tongs and she transfers each pom to the tray. This is a fun activity to practice fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination.
Grab these adorable trays HERE
Many of these supplies to make these busy bags can be found at Walmart or Dollar Tree as well.
DIVE STICK WEAVING
For this busy bag, simply take a dive wand (stock up in the summer months at your dollar store) and hot glue ribbon for children to weave in and out.
It is trickier than it looks for them, and my four year old will sit for thirty minutes weaving her wand in and out.
POOL NOODLE PATTERN & LACING
Cut up pool noodles and they are the perfect “beads” for toddler hands. All of my kiddos love doing this activity.
I can find pool noodles in the spring and summer for $1 each and I just use a sharp knife to cut them. I tie one noodle to the end of a long shoe strong and my kiddos go to town stringing them and following the pattern cards.
Print and laminate these pattern cards and you’re set
The possibilities are endless with pool noodles. My kiddos also love stacking them. It works on so many skills such as color matching, following patterns, directionality, fine motor skills and so much more.
Print these FREE pattern cards HERE
PAINT CHIP COLOR MATCHING
Looking for a busy bag that you can make for super cheap? I use old paint color cards and clothespins to make a fun color matching activity!
Just cut small strips off the end of each paint card and hot glue to the clothespins. I use modge podge over the color chips to make sure they stay on the clothespins (eventually the hot glue will pop off.)
This activity is adorable to watch because sometimes the colors are super close and hard for children to distinguish. It will surely keep them busy for a good 20 minutes! Who knew there could be so many shades of purple?
PONY BEAD LACING AND COLORING MATCHING
This is another inexpensive and easy color matching busy bag. All you need are pony beads and pipe cleaners.
I switch it up by having them use one hand or two hands to lace the beads.
Then we also practice counting with the beads... "Please put 5 red beads on, 4 orange, 3 yellow, 2 green and 1 blue!"
The pony beads we use are small and could be a choking hazard, so I always sit with them for this activity to supervise.