Busy Bag Swap Ideas for Kids

A couple weeks ago I invited some friends to kick off the summer with a busy bag swap!  What better way to get ready for summer travel than to stock up on new activities?  If you’ve never heard that term before a busy bag is a self-contained activity or project for kids.  For this swap the activity did not have to be reusable, it just had to have all the pieces and instructions needed for kids to complete.  There were 6 moms who could make it so everyone brought 6 copies of their busy bag and we got together for a mom-only night of tapas and sangria.  A moms night out with lots of cool activities to take home–we obviously had lots of fun!

I made these gel writing boards I had seen on pinterest from Play Dr. Mom.  They are tons of sensory fun and can also be used for drawing, letter and number writing, math problems and lots more.  Check out her site for the easy instructions.

This is a free giraffe counting printable from Prekinders that one of the moms laminated to make it reusable.  She included play dough so kids can practice counting by making leaves on the trees and a dry erase marker for writing addition and subtraction problems.  The play dough leaves become a manipulative kids can use to problem solve!

Another mom also did play dough mats and laminated full sets of these great math mats from Homeschool Creations! There in the play dough set kids can make the numbers from 0-20 out of play dough while practicing counting and reading the number word. Kids can practice number writing and one to one correspondence with the wipe off number cards.

And I can’t give you a link to this funny faces set because one of my friends actually drew it herself!  My kids have had lots of fun making different faces and then coming up with their own story about their creation.  This could even be something that kids can make for themselves.

And this is a super cool Spin and Spell from Michelles Charm World!  Kids can come up with their own real and nonsense 3, 4 and 5 letter words.  Such a simple and fun spelling tool!

And last, but certainly not least are these patriotic lanterns adapted from the Crafting Chicks!  The mom who brought these prepped the craft for everyone and included enough materials for each kid in everyone’s family to make one.  Since our swap took place right before the 4th of July this craft was perfect!

We had tons of fun at our first busy bag swap and are planning another one for before school starts.  Have you ever participated in a busy bag swap before?  What cool busy bag ideas have you done?  Feel free to leave the link in the comments because we’re all looking for new ideas for next time!