Apple Busy Box Activities from Toddler to Kindergarten

Ah! Fall! The weather is not scheduled up in the 80s and 90s, and we can anticipate the crunch of falling leaves. Fall always reminds me of apple picking. I'm not sure we're going this year, but it has been a frequent tradition for our family.

To keep my little kids busy when I'm busy with my older child, I'd use a busy box to direct attention. The activities and books below are perfect for an apple-themed busy box for toddlers, preschoolers, or kindergarten kids!

What Is a Busy Box?

I taught a class at our co-op,  so that meant my daughters would hang out with different adults each week.  I often felt that we needed something to hand off to help a parent watch my child! Also, when we were waiting around for older brother and sister to finish their class or activity, I wanted something to keep them busy other than a tablet. 

That's where busy boxes (also called busy bags or workboxes) come in handy. It is a self-contained, not too messy set of activities that a parent can assemble for a toddler or preschooler to keep them busy while out and about.

An Apple Busy Box for a Toddler

Here are the fun things I packed in our bag on one particular fall week. These meet a variety of needs for my kids, who were different ages.

1. Sort the apples by color. Included with my Apples Counting and Adding cards set. Fun for using with pom poms or other small manipulatives. (all ages)
2. Ripped Paper Red Apple collage.  My toddler loves gluing things!
3. Silly Snake Color/Pattern Match. We pretend these are worms that want to eat an apple!
4. Books. Read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and I Spy An Apple for fun. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a coconut tree, but it may as well be an apple tree!
5. Apple Orchard Play Doh. Free from Life Over C’s. This was, of course, the most popular option for the preschooler and the 22-month-old child also in the room. (all ages)
6. Homemade Scented Apple Pie Busy Bag. Idea from Sugar Spice and Glitter. This imagination play set smells so good! (all ages)
   

An Apple Busy Bag for a Preschooler

1. Roll and Count. Free from 3 Dinosaurs (in the Tot Apple Pack). My preschooler loved the stickers and the rolling of the dice. (preschool & kindergarten)
2. My Apple Book. Free from Oopsey Daisy blog. Strawberry had no interest in coloring the trees but she sure loved stamping her apple-fingers on the trees! She wanted all the trees to have more apples. (all ages)
3. My “A” Book. Purchased from Growing Little Minds. Add the “a”s and read the booklet. (preschool & kindergarten)
4. A pages.  Purchased from Tweet Resources. Find the A’s page, cut and paste “a” uppercase/lowercase. (kindergarten)
5. Sew an Apple with a Pipe Cleaner. I traced an apple on red foam, then punched holes around the edges. This was just right for a preschoolers skill level!
6. Sesame Street Picnic Puzzle. There is an apple tree in the puzzle. (NOT PICTURED)
7. Apple seeds counting busy bag. Put seeds (or black puff balls) on a tree after rolling a die. More one-to-one correspondence practice with a fine motor skill as well. (preschool & kindergarten)  (NOT PICTURED)
8. Apple counting cards. In my Apples Counting and Adding cards set. Practice one-to-one correspondence. (preschool &  kindergarten)
9. Apple ten frames. In my Apples Counting and Adding cards set. Practice one-to-one correspondence. (preschool & kindergarten)
10. ABC Apple match. From Artsy Mama. Practice matching letters and using stickers for fine motor skills! (preschool & kindergarten)

And those are the apples activities in our workbox for the week!

My Apples Counting Activities

As I mentioned above, I have created some fun apple activities for young learners. Here are some more details about them!