Make this fun number sense busy bag for your preschool or kindergarten aged kids to help them practice counting and numbers! Great for quiet time or centres! Free printable number cards are included in the tutorial!
What Are Busy Bags?
Busy bags are self-contained, fun, and educational activities. Often stored in zip-lock bags or pouches, these activities provide sanity-saving quiet time that parents need while engaging kids in meaningful play and learning.
Busy bags are versatile to use and inexpensive to assemble. This makes them ideal for parents, teachers, daycare works and childcare providers.
Materials Needed to Build this Busy Bag for Kids
To get started you will need to assemble all the materials needed.
The Bag – Use a larger zippered freezer bag or if you want something more durable I really like these File folders with snap closure.
Pompoms – Include 10 small pompoms, about 1cm i size, in bright colours.
Popsicle Sticks – You will need 10 colourful craft sticks.
Foam Numbers – Colourful foam numbers work perfectly for this busy bag, but magnets would work well too if you have those on hand already.
Free printable number sense cards – Download and print the number sense cards onto cardstock. To make them extra durable you can use a laminator!
How to use the Number Sense Busy Bag
This busy bag is designed to teach number recognition and counting, with a little fine motor practice thrown in as well.
Your child can play with this busy bag in multiple ways. Have your kids match up all the cards belonging to one number. Then match up the pompoms, foam numbers and craft sticks with the appropriate cards.
I love busy bags for road trips or just for when I need a little quiet time! Busy bags are great independent activities for learning, problem-solving, and creativity.
Not only will this number sense busy bag keep kids productive and busy, but it also promotes early learning concepts of number sense and encourages the creative play. It can also help with the development of fine motor skills.
Looking for more Kindergarten Free Worksheets?
Check out some of my favourite free worksheet printables for Kindergarten & Preschool that are perfect for parents homeschooling or as free worksheets for teachers.
Fall Math Worksheets for Pre-K to 1st Grade
Free Handwriting Practice Worksheets
Construction Trucks Math Pack for Kindergarten to 1st Grade
Free Printable Dinosaur Activity Book
Ice Skating Themed Pre-Kindergarten and Kingergarten Worksheets
Knights and Dragons K-1st Grade Worksheets
Monster Math Pack for Pre-K to 1st Grade
Elizabeth Lampman is a coffee-fuelled Mom of 2 girls and lives in Hamilton, Ontario. She enjoys travelling, developing easy recipes, crafting, taking on diy projects, travelling and saving money!
Vio
Tuesday 23rd of May 2023
Elizabeth, thanks for putting this printable together. I'm sure my little one will enjoy them so much! I wish the hand showing the number would be in ASL... but I'm sure I can figure something out to swap that.. I appreciate you putting in all the work!