From when my second child was a toddler till today, when she is a kindergartner and my third child is a toddler, I keep them busy by setting up busy boxes (also called busy bags or workboxes). With fall comes apple picking season for us. The activities and books below are perfect for an apple themed busy box!
I teach a class at our co-op, and my son is present for one or two other classes as well. This means that my two daughters get to “hang out” a lot each week, sometimes with a different adult to watch her.
Here are the fun things I packed in our bag this week. These meet a variety of needs for my kids, from 2-year-old Kitty to five-year-old Strawberry.
- Roll and Count. Free from 3 Dinosaurs (in the Tot Apple Pack). Strawberry loves the stickers and the rolling of the dice. (preschool & kindergarten)
- 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)
- My “A” Book. Purchased from Growing Little Minds. Add the “a”s and read the booklet. (preschool & kindergarten)
- A pages. Purchased from Tweet Resources. Find the A’s page, cut and paste “a” uppercase/lowercase. (kindergarten)
- Apple Orchard Play Doh. Free from Life Over C’s. This was, of course, the most popular option for the preschooler and my 22-month-old child also in the room. (all ages)
- Homemade Scented Apple Pie Busy Bag. Idea from Sugar Spice and Glitter. This imagination play set smells so good! (all ages)
- 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)
- Apple counting cards. In my Apples Counting and Adding cards set. Practice one-to-one correspondence. (preschool & kindergarten)
- Apple ten frames. In my Apples Counting and Adding cards set. Practice one-to-one correspondence. (preschool & kindergarten)
- ABC Apple match. From Artsy Mama. Practice matching letters and using stickers for fine motor skills! (preschool & kindergarten)
- Apple seeds counting busy bag. From Powerful Mothering. More one-to-one correspondence practice with a fine motor skill as well. (preschool & kindergarten)
- Apple Picking no sew quiet book page. From Powerful Mothering. Fine motor skill moving and playing. (all ages)
Ten Apples Up on Top counting. Get a free printable page (as show above) when you subscribe to the VIP Resource Library! Count to ten with small manipulatives after you read the fun picture book. I found the adorable apple eraser tops at Target. This activity would be great for preschool & kindergarten, and it goes perfectly with the favorite picture book, Ten Apples Up on Top.
Basic addition with apple trees. From my Apples Counting and Adding cards set. My kindergartner felt so smart as she used the twenty frames, trees, and cute apple erasers to add for this activity. (kindergarten)
As I mentioned, you can get the Ten Apples on Top page for free when you sign up to become a Line upon Line Learning VIP.
You can get these other apple activities (and more!) in my shop as well!
Here were my final ideas for fun. I found things around the house and they seemed appropriate.
- 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!
- Ripped Paper Red Apple collage. My toddler loves gluing things!
- Silly Snake Color/Pattern Match. We pretend these are worms that want to eat an apple!
- 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!
- Sesame Street Picnic Puzzle. There is an apple tree in the puzzle.
And those are the apples activities in our workbox for the week!
What do you give your little ones to play with when you are busy doing school with the older ones? What is in your workbox this week?