6 Preschool Busy Bags for a 3.5-Hour Plane Ride

Hi! It's a long weekend here that is why the blog has been very quiet. We have been busy in school and activities last week so we only had a few lesson days. I'll try to get back to regular programming as soon as I can.

In the mean time, today I will share with you these six preschool busy bags for a 3.5-hour plane ride. My SIL is going to take her 3-year old son back to Singapore for the Christmas holidays and she told me that she was planning to make busy bags. Well, I love making busy bags. As a matter of fact, I like making kids' activities of all sorts (as you may already know) so I decided to surprise her and make some for her. These take little time to prepare and they're not very expensive too especially if you already have materials on hand. I collect a lot of arts and crafts materials as well as a steady supply of laminating films, card stock, etc. so these took no time to make.

First, I got these pouches to separate each activity. 

Busy Bag 1 - Shadow Matching

I printed off these Montessori Cards onto card stock, laminated and cut them. I'm sorry I forgot where I found the cards because it's been a long time since I downloaded them. We used these cards when my son was around 8 months old. If you know where to find them, I'd appreciate a link!

Busy Bag 2 - Egg and Ice Cream Sorting

This is another fun activity that my son enjoyed when we played it. The child just needs to sort the eggs according to color. I also added a sheet of ice cream stickers which he can use alternately to sort. Stickers are a huge hit among toddlers and preschoolers. They are also great practice for fine motor skills. Oh, I also added some instructions in each bag which I wrote on a Post-It, if you're wondering what that orange thing is. 

Busy Bag 3 - Counting Fish

This is a fun Math activity. I also don't have the link as we used this activity when my son was around 9 months old and he is 3 now. Again, I'd appreciate a link. 

You can use Do-A-Dot markers or dabbers for this activity if you don't want to laminate the cards. I laminated them so that they can be used over and over again. I included a sheet of sea creature stickers for my nephew to use. He will count the fish and put a sticker on the correct number. 

Busy Bag 4 - Living and Non-Living Things Sorting

My nephew is in school. He is in a pre-nursery class to prepare him for nursery next year. When my son was in nursery, we studied living and non-living things. I thought this activity would be a great primer for my nephew. Most of these are Montessori photos as well. 

Busy Bag 5 - Pompom Pattern Activity

This is super fun activity that my son enjoys up until now but he does the more complicated patterns. For this activity, I used the ABAB pattern. I have a bunch of pompoms in my supply, some circle stickers, Sharpies and big popsicle sticks so this took me about 5 minutes to make. 

First, I checked the color of my pompoms. Then I got my Sharpies and colored the circle stickers. Peel, then stick them to the popsicle sticks. Leave one space empty. Tell the child to put the corresponding pompoms onto the stickers and then for the last space, ask the child what pompom will come next. There should be 6 pompoms on the stick. 

Busy Bag 6 - City Sticker Scene

I'm pretty sure my nephew will get a kick out of this activity as it involves car stickers! I just printed off this city scene from Free Time Frolics, laminated it and cut it to the size of the pouch. This is a full page scene but I printed off just 75% for it to fit in the pouch. Then, I included a sheet of vehicle stickers. Free Time Frolics used real vehicle toys for this activity. You can use that too but I feel that for a plane ride, toys with wheels are really not a great idea. I know, I've been there, done that. When they fall off, it's hard to "chase" them. So, I stick to stickers and manipulatives that don't go running away from me. 

Bonus Tip: Bring materials, toys or manipulatives that are cheap so that if you lose them, you won't feel bad and you won't have to get up from your seat and ask someone to move or get the item for you. 

You can also punch a hole in each bag and bind them with a ring bind. It's a great way to keep them all together. I don't know if my SIL will like that as I'm publishing this before showing her the pics. I'll be shipping these off to the province.

I hope you liked my busy bags. If you want to save these ideas for an upcoming trip, feel free to Pin the image below.

You can find more busy bag ideas here.