Friday, December 5, 2014

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Magnetic Christmas Tree Preschool Busy Bag

This magnetic Christmas tree makes a perfect "busy bag" or Montessori bin.  It takes less than five minutes to make, and all my preschoolers have loved it!  I bet they'd even love to get it in a stocking!!



Busy Bags are perfect for waiting rooms, kids in grocery carts, or even church meetings!  You can also put the contents in a bin and let your kiddos take it off the shelf and explore it Montessori-style whenever they want!

This Magnetic Christmas Tree preschool activity strengthens fine motor skills, little finger muscles, and pincer grip!  If you sit with your kiddo, you can also use it to talk about colors and sizes!  And if you're not into Christmas trees, you could use them as pine trees or just experience with shapes!



Make your own Magnetic Christmas Tree Preschool Busy Bag!


Simple Supplies:

* hot glue gun and glue

* 3 green craft sticks

* 12 button magnets
(safety note: Keep magnets away from children who may put them in their mouths!)

* 6 big pom poms
(The poms pictured are from CraftProjectIdeas.
We also made a big button set!)


Easy How-To:

1- Glue the craft sticks into a triangle to form the Christmas Tree.



2.  Glue six button magnets onto the Christmas Tree.  Make sure they are all facing the same direction: to do this, I stacked six on top of each other and made sure they snapped together easily.  Next, I took them off the stack and placed them face-down next to the tree.  Then, I glued each one down, making sure it was still "face-down."



3.  Set another button magnet on top of each of the magnets you glued down.  They will "stick" because they're magnets.  :)  Put a pile of glue on top of a magnet and stick a big pom pom in it!  Repeat for the other five pom poms.  When it dries, pull the magnets apart, dump them in a tray, and let your child explore how magnets work while decorating a Christmas tree!


All our preschoolers, 2-4 years old thought this was super fun...they were absolutely delighted whent their "decorations"stuck effortlessly to the tree.  Even my older kiddos had fun playing with the magnets too!



Soooo...do you want your own magnetic Christmas tree preschool busy bag?  
Have you used busy bags before?  What kind?  I'd love to know!!


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Disclaimer:  We received the pom poms as part of a craft supply box from CraftProjectIdeas.com.



I may share at any of these parties!



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3 comments:

Tarana Khan said...

I like activities like these which are easy to put together! It would be great for toddlers too.

Carla at Preschool Powol Packets said...

Yes, Tarana! I *love* easy-to-set-up activities!! It would be awesome for toddlers...just make sure they don't eat any magnets!

Samantha said...

Great idea! Thanks for linking up at the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop! We hope you stop by again next week!