Adam was too young when the Loom Band craze happened. I watched enviously as parents and children made wonderful creations with the small colourful bands. One advantage of the craze being over is that Loom Bands are now incredibly cheap. Adam may still be too young to make a bracelet with them but we created a Loom Band Busy Bag in order to develop his fine motor skills.
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For our Busy Bag I purchased a clear plastic storage box which had 11 compartments and two clips to secure the lid shut. It is similar to this one on Amazon.
Using our Colourful Sharpie Pen Set I coloured in the base of most of the sections in a different colour. With the top 6 sections I used the colours of the rainbow. I left the two middle compartments plain and then coloured in the bottom three green, black and blue.
With the Loom Band craze over I managed to buy large Loom Bands Kit with over 2,000 bands for less than £2. I used these bands to fill our Busy Bag placing the correct colours in each compartment.
In the middle two sections I placed a variety of different activities with which Adam could explore the Loom Bands with. These included coloured craft sticks, a handmade Loom Band bouncy ball, two reusable ice cubes
and four small plastic playdough cutters.
Adam couldn’t wait to get his hands on the Loom Band Busy Bag. He chose to use the small plastic playdough cutters first. The idea was to stretch the loom band and place it onto the mini cutter. Adam struggled to do this independently but managed it I held the cutter still. With lots of perseverance he managed to place several Loom Bands onto the four cutters.
Next he tried using the coloured craft sticks. Here he had to not only stretch the Loom Band to fit it on the craft stick but he also had to twist it so the band would double up on the stick. It is surprisingly difficult to show a three year old how to do this but Adam managed to attach 8 Loom Bands with a little assistance.
Adam found it easier to place the Loom Bands onto the reusable ice cubes. He decided to turn the cube around each time he added a new Loom Band and declared that the ice cube looked like a Christmas present.
Finally, he turned his attention to the Loom Band Bouncy Ball. After watching Red Ted Art’s video on how to make a Loom Band Bouncy Ball, I couldn’t wait to try it out. I followed their instructions to make the start of the ball. Over time Adam will be able to add Loom Bands from the Busy Bag until the bouncy ball is complete.
Tidying away our Busy Bag turned into a wonderful colour sorting activity. I had expected to place the Loom Bands back into the box and shut the lid. However, Adam had other plans. He wanted the Loom Bands to be placed back into the right colour compartment.
It took a while but he was certainly pleased with the outcome. Our Loom Band Busy Bag is ready to play with at another time. It will be interesting to see how Adams fine motor skills develop with the activity over time.
Our Loom Band Busy Bag forms part of the A to Z of Busy Bag series hosted by Teach Me Mommy. Check out the other Busy Bag activities based on each letter of the alphabet.
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Love this use of loom bands!
Thanks for participating in the series!