• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Adventures and Play

Kid play and learning adventures

  • Home
  • Adam and I
  • Adventures
  • Ways To Play With…
  • Reviews
  • Hyperemesis Gravidarum

Mr Men Shapes Busy Bag

April 16, 2015 by Emma Edwards 3 Comments

This months Busy Bag Blog Hop theme is Kindergarten Prep Busy Bags. The aim is to provide parents and teachers a way to help preschoolers get ready for the first day a big school. Now I know that Adam isn’t moving up to big school any time soon – in fact he only goes to Pre-school two mornings a week. However, the great thing about Busy Bags are that they can be adapted as your child gets older. We created a sequencing Mr Men Shapes Busy Bag which can be changed to suit Adam’s developing knowledge.

Adventures of Adam Sequencing Mr Men Busy Bag Adventures of Adam

My Reception class always enjoyed playing with Shape Links, similiar to these, so I was intrigued to see if Adam would enjoy them too.

In a packet of Shape Links you get three different shapes – square, circle and triangle – in four bright colours. There are a total of 100 shapes which can link together. They are ideal for sorting, counting, colour recognition and to develop fine motor skills. I wanted Adam to practise shape recognition and introduce him to sequencing.

Adventures of Adam Mr Men busy bag

Adam has started to show an interest in Mr Men and loves to look at the different characters. On a recent shopping trip he spotted a Mr Men tin which I knew would be ideal for a busy bag. Our Shape Links reminded me of a few Mr Men characters – the yellow circled looked like Mr Happy, the red square like Mr Strong and the blue triangle like Mr Rush. So we decided to create a Mr Men Shapes Busy Bag.

My idea had been to photograph each of the Shape Links, make sequencing cards on the computer and print them out. However, technology failed me so I had to resort to pencil and paper. On strips of card I used the shapes as a template to draw around and created a variety of sequencing cards based on shapes and colours.

Adventures of Adam Hand made shape sequencing cards

I also wanted a way that Adam could create his own Mr Men. I cut some blue felt to fit inside the Mr Men tin and glued googly eyes to it. Now Adam could add the shapes to the felt and make up his own characters. To muffle the sound of the Shape Links in the metal tin I placed more blue felt in the base of the tin. Our Mr Men shapes busy bag was complete.

Adventures of Adam Mr Men Shapes

Adam loved the busy bag from the moment he saw it. First we went through the shapes and told me the colour and shape of each item – yes all 100 of them! I then demonstrated how Adam could use the sequencing cards.

Adventures of Adam Toddler shape game

He loved finding each shape and placing it directly on top of the and hand drawn shape.

Adventures of Adam Independent toddler shape play

As Adam was so occupied with the sequencing cards it took him a little while before he noticed the googly eyes. Without showing him what to do Adam placed a shape on top of a pair of eyes. He repeated the process until all the eyes and a shape around them. The second he finished Adam shouted “again”, took all the shapes off and started again. This activity kept him busy for ages.

Adventures of Adam Mr Men shape faces

The Mr Men busy bag has already been used several times and helped to occupy Adam whilst waiting at the doctors. It is a fantastic activity to promote independent play and introduce or reinforce mathematical concepts. For older children the activity can be extended by getting them to link up the shapes and continue the repeating pattern. They could even create their own sequencing cards.

Adventures of Adam Sequencing Shape Links

 

Equipment:

* Shape Links similiar to these

* Mr Men tin

* Strips of card

* Pencil crayons and a thin black felt tip pen

* Blue felt

* Super glue

13 Kindergarten Prep Busy Bags

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:

Free Alphabet Clip Cards // Playdough to Plato

Word Family Sort // Coffee Cups and Crayons

Printable Time Telling Game // Easy Peasy and Fun

Story Circles // Powerful Mothering

Magnetic Name Trace // Teach Me Mommy

Sight Word Memory Game // Frogs Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Tactile Name Writing Practice // Preschool Inspirations

3D Shape Identification // Mommy Needs a Coffee Break

Touch and Feel ABC Cards // The Pleasantest Thing

Printable Dry Erase Morning Routine Busy Bag // Lalymom

Sequencing Mr. Men Shapes Busy Bag // Adventures of Adam

Alphabet Matching Puzzles // Itsy Bitsy Fun

Lowercase Letter Formation with Baked Cotton Balls // Sugar Aunts

 

You May Also Like:

Adventures of Adam Light Box Shapes
Light Box Shapes
Adventures of Adam Aliens Love Underpants Busy Bag
Aliens Love Underpants Busy Bag
Counting Sheep Busy Bag Adventures of Adam
Counting Sheep Busy Bag

 

 

Filed Under: Independent Play Activity, Learning Activities, Play Activities, Popular Posts, Some time required Tagged With: Book themed play, Busy Bag Play Activities, Colours, DIY activities, Fine Motor Activities, Independent Play Activities, Non-messy activity, Shapes, Toddler play

Previous Post: « Little Bo Peep and her Lost Sheep
Next Post: Earth Day Tuff Spot »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Malia {Playdough to Plato} says

    April 16, 2015 at 3:07 pm

    What an awesome way to practice sequencing, patterns, shapes… so many things!!

    Reply
  2. Deebi27 says

    July 16, 2016 at 7:52 pm

    Love this idea too! I will need to find a nice tin, got the felt and get the links! Do you by some chance have a link to print the sequence cards? Then I am ready to got…Thanks again!

    Reply
    • Emma Edwards says

      July 18, 2016 at 4:59 pm

      Unfortunately not. I just used the links to draw around them and coloured them in myself.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Welcome!

Emma and Adam

During a difficult pregnancy suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) Emma vowed to make every day an adventure once she had recovered. Adventures of Adam is the outcome of completing a 100 day play challenge with Adam as part of that promise. Emma has a section dedicated to HG friendly play activities so that Mums can still be part of their children’s play whilst they are ill.

To learn more about Emma and Adam click here.


To subscribe to our newsletter enter your
* = required field

powered by MailChimp!
MAD Blog Awards UK 2015

Archives

Footer

WE’RE MEMBERS OF

TOTS100 - UK Parent Blogs
TOTS100

BritMums - Leading the Conversation

Awards:

FINALIST BiB 2014 FRESH VOICE

Crafty Blogs

Find Us At:

Adventures of Adam Toys R Us Toyologist
Adventures of Adam Trunki Chief Tester

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Twinkl Educational School Resources

Copyright © 2021 · by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Necessary Always Enabled

Non-necessary