10 Educational Busy Bags Using Items From The Target Dollar Spot

A few weeks ago, I walked into our local Target and noticed that the Dollar Spot was overflowing with back to school items.

I couldn't believe it at first. We had just gotten out of school for the Summer one week earlier! But that didn't stop me from filling up my cart. I ended up returning home with a large bag full of learning materials.

These items had a purpose!

Lily will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall right after she turns 5 and will be one of the youngest kids in her class. She is very social and very independent, so I have no concerns regarding her social and emotional readiness. I do, however, want to keep up with the learning and memorization so she's every bit as prepared as her older classmates. She will be starting Kindergarten with children who are already a full year older than her, so I want to give her a bit of an edge.

Liam has been using a lot of picture books and flashcards lately in Speech Therapy. I wanted to introduce some new learning materials before he makes the transition into preschool based therapy in the Fall.  In addition to his early intervention therapies, I spend many hours working with him on my own, so I need to have educational materials on hand.

Sure enough, we started to use these items every day, but our current storage method wasn't working. At first, I kept everything in a small storage container but it wasn't always easy to find what I was looking for.  Our very popular Busy Bags Binder gets used every day, so I was inspired to create a Busy Bags Binder full of educational busy bags!

This method ended up working out SO well!

Items Needed:

• A 2-to-3 inch Binder (bigger is better)
• Binder Pencil Pouches 
• Small crate to store extra busy bags

Pick up some learning materials, group them into learning skills (early reading, counting, letter recognition, time, money) and place each group of items into a pencil pouch.  Snap them into the binder, create a fun cover and store on a bookshelf within easy reach!

Here are 10 Educational Busy Bags using items from the Target Dollar Spot:

{ONE}

Early Reading

Activities Included:

• Phonics Flash Cards
• Rhyming Cards
• Rhyming Puzzle Wheels
• Sight Words Flash Cards

We actually use the Sight Words Flash Cards with Liam, too! Did you know that kids who have Down syndrome often have amazing memorization skills early on? I had no idea prior to having Liam. There are some awesome 3 year olds I know in the Down syndrome community who are already reading! We just recently started, but I'll let you know how it goes!

{TWO}

Time

Activities Included:

• Telling Time Puzzle Cards
• Wipe Clean Time Practice Cards
• Telling Time Flash Cards

I'm introducing the hours to Lily already. It's never too early to learn!

{THREE}

Sequencing

Activities Included:

• Alphabet Sequencing Puzzle
• Number Sequencing Puzzle
• Sequencing Puzzle Cards 

This is a fun way to learn patterns and letter and number sequences!

{FOUR}

Counting and Numbers

Activities Included:

• Numbers Flash Cards
• Number Matching
• Counting 1-20 Flash Cards
• Number Wheel

This Busy Bag is more for Liam, but I do quiz Lily on the numbers once a week just to keep her mind sharp!

{FIVE}

Shapes and Colors

Activities Included:

• Color Wheel
• Shapes and Colors Flash Cards
• Color Clips

 I love the shapes and colors flash cards because they go beyond the basic colors and shapes. Lily can now easily identify crescents, semi-circles, octagons, hexagons and pentagons and is learning shades such as Aqua.

{SIX}

Alphabet

Activities Included:

• Alphabet Flash Cards
• Wipe Clean Letters
• ABC's and Words Flash Cards
• Lowercase Letter Learning
• Uppercase Letter Learning

This is one of my favorite Busy Bags! I use it frequently for both kids. I use the flash cards to teach Liam his ABC's. The ABC's and Words flash cards are great for quizzing Lily on skills she already knows while teaching her to recognize words. She often uses the Wipe Clean cards on her own to practice her handwriting.

{SEVEN} 

Money

Activities Included:

• Money Puzzle Cards
• Felt Money Set
• Wipe Clean Money Practice Cards

I'm already teaching Lily some basic money skills.  The felt money set ($3) is a fun tool for teaching her the basics! It comes with a wallet, bills and coins and everything fits into a handy zipper case. Lily loves to use it for pretend play!

{EIGHT}

Letters

Activities Included:

• Wipe Clean Play and Learn Practice Cards
• Alphabet Puzzle Cards

This Busy Bag is just an extension of the Alphabet Busy Bag, but is suited more for Lily.

{NINE}

Lacing

Activities Included:

• Lacing Shapes-Robots
• Lacing Shapes-Fairies
• Chunky Lacing Shapes

This Busy Bag is more for honing those fine motor skills. Liam is working hard on lacing right now in Occupational Therapy and it's a good quiet activity for Lily!

{TEN}

 Magnetic Alphabet, Numbers & Shapes

Activities Included:

• Magnetic Numbers and Letters
• Magnetic Numbers and Shapes in Zipper Pouch
• Drawstring Favor Bag to hold the magnets
• Chalk Paint Cookie Sheet

I made the chalk trays for our road trip to the beach last year and our kids ended up using them all the time! The kids love to draw on them with chalk (roads and cars for Liam) and stick magnets to them! I included the how-to in THIS simple road trip ideas post, but it's easy: Just $1 cookie sheets with a coat of chalk spray paint on them!

With just a small amount of money and a few minutes of time, you can create a binder full of educational busy bags that will take you from the toddler years into the school years!

In addition to the busy bags in the binder, I picked up a few $1 puzzles and Wipe Clean Magnetic Lap Boards to slide into the pockets in the binder for more fun!

I like to create more busy bags as I find items while shopping, so I keep a few extra binder pencil pouches on hand and I store all the extra busy bags in a small crate. I can swap out busy bags as the kids grow and their needs change!

The Learning Busy Bags Binder is such a simple idea for kids of all ages that results in endless hours of learning and play!

 

Do you have busy bags for your kids?

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How To Create Busy Bags using items from The Target Dollar Spot

Creating a collection of Busy Bags was at the top of my To Do List this summer!

My goal was to complete them before our vacation at the end of August, and time was rapidly running out.  I finally began to peruse my Pinterest board, and although the ideas were incredible, I didn't have the time to make things from scratch.

I had to come up with another idea!

It's no secret that I love the Target Dollar Spot! I mean, who doesn't get sucked into the bins of $1 and $3 must have items?!?  A few weeks ago, I was searching through the bins for items to keep our kids busy on our road trip, when it hit me:  Why not use those items in Busy Bags? It made complete sense!



At the beginning of the year, I made activity packs for Lily to play with while Liam was having therapy sessions in our home.  It was a great way to organize large groups of items.  I keep them in a storage ottoman and we still use them daily!



Although we love the mesh activity packs, I wanted something that was easily portable. I wanted a wide variety of items that could be played with in our home, then stashed in our car for play on the go. 

Enter the Busy Bag Binder!



A trip to Target was in order! I picked up the largest binder I could find, bought a bunch of clear pencil pouches (with binder holes) that were on sale for well under a dollar each, gathered some Dollar Spot items, and went to work!



Here's what I came up with:

Counting Blocks ($1)-Great for teaching Lily basic addition and subtraction, but they can also be used as building blocks!



Alphabet Learning Puzzle ($1)-A great matching puzzle perfect for practicing letter recognition!



Building Blocks ($1)-Girl colors for Lily! She loves building towers with them!



Fairy Tale Friends ($1)-Mini figures for pretend play for my girls.



Frozen Matching Game ($1) and Animals Flash Cards ($1)-A game for the girls and flashcards for Liam.  



Wild Animals ($1)-Pretend Play figures for Liam.



Building Blocks ($1)-Different shapes and colors, but just as much fun!



Curious George Play Pack ($1) and My Little Pony Play Pack ($1)-Crayons, Stickers, and a coloring book in each pack.



Chipboard Lacing Shapes ($1)-Lacing shapes help with fine motor skills!



Glitter n Glitz Puzzle ($1)-A more complicated puzzle for Lily. I cut out a small picture from the bag the puzzle came in to use as a guide and placed it in the bag with the puzzle pieces.



Sticker Album and Stickers ($1)-This one is mainly for Lily. She loves stickers, and I love that she can fill up a keepsake album!



Tangram Puzzle ($3)-I spent the most money on this item, because it was a higher quality wooden puzzle. Lily has to think harder to put it together and Liam can play with it, too!



Once the Busy Bags were assembled, it was time to put our Busy Binder together!

I created a simple cover and asked Lexie to draw some shapes.  I slipped the cover into the front binder pocket, then chose 8 Busy Bags to keep in the binder.  



I stored the 4 remaining Busy Bags in a mini crate, and plan on swapping the bags every week. 



I was thrilled with the way my Busy Bags Binder turned out!



So was Lily!



The Busy Bags can be easily removed for play, then returned to the binder afterward.  We have a strict "You must clean up one Busy Bag before you get another" rule in our house!

Stay tuned for another round of Busy Bags coming your way soon! The next batch involves paper clips, flash cards, pipecleaners, golf balls, beads, rope, pool noodles, clay, and more!




Do you have Busy Bags for your kids?  

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