Busy Bags Revisited

We are gearing up for another long car ride. We're driving 12ish hours down to New Orleans and then back. I dug out the busy bags yesterday. The busy bags were a mess after using them several months ago and needed to be sorted and refreshed.

I made a few new ones to replace some that didn't work well for my children.

Key Match

Go to a home improvement store and politely ask the key guy if you can dig through his discard bin. Choose as many keys as you can that have differently shaped heads. Gently place the keys on a photocopier and made a copy. Now you have a key matching activity. (You might want to wash the keys. They'll be pretty dirty.)

Lego Patterns

Make some towers out of basic lego bricks. Form a pattern with the colors. Then draw pattern cards leaving the bottom block blank with a question mark inside. Take your towers back apart and toss the individual bricks and pattern cards into a bag.

Dry Erase Tracing Cards

I printed some alphabet cards and some tracing activities and slid them into card protectors held together by rings (bought at Wal-mart). I stuck the set of dry erase tracing cards into a bag with some dry erase markers and a piece of felt for erasing.

Cutting and Drawing

A pair of scissors, crayons, and some cutting and drawing activities from a book of reproducibles went into this new bag. They will just sort through the pile of activities until they find one they like and then go to it.

Organization

Once all the bags were refreshed and ready to go I just "filed" them in appropriately sized boxes. (To see detailed descriptions of the contents of the rest of the bags, click busy bags.) I pull one from the front and when they're finished with the bag I move it to the back of the box. I keep one box at my feet so I can easily pull out another bag whenever one is requested.

I also made some lap trays lined with felt. Lots of the bags have multiple parts (beads, legos, keys, etc.) and they just open the bag and dump it into their tray. The felt keeps the small pieces from sliding around too much. This gives them some working/play space when they're buckled into their carseats. When they're done, they have to return all the parts to the bag before they can give it back.

The trays are also useful when feeding the kids in the car because they minimize crumbs and spills everywhere. I just pull out the felt during the meal and shake the crumbs out of the box and return the felt to the bottom after the meal.

If you like these activities, you may be interested in more.

• Car Ride Activities Set 1
• Car Ride Activities Set 2
• Car Ride Activities Set 3
• Car Ride Activities Set 4
• Car Ride Activities Set 5
• Car Ride Activities Set 6
• Car Ride Activities Set 7

Car Ride Activities Set 7

I sure hope someone is planning a trip with young children in the next few months and finds all these travel activity posts (Set 1, Set 2, Set 3, Set 4, Set 5, Set 6) useful! For the rest of you, I would like to point out that many of these activities could easily be integrated into therapy sessions or simply used as craft projects or activities around the house.

Car Ride Activities Set 7

Busy Bag 31: High/Low Homemade Instruments

Kids love to make noise and I was looking to add a little of variety to my busy bag stash. This activity is only appropriate in an environment where noise isn't going to bother anyone. I took some small plastic boxes from an organization tray and used them to make two sizes of drums by stretching balloons over the tops and holding them in place with rubber bands and tape. I provided a popsicle stick to use as a drumstick. One drum is higher in tone than the other. I took a third box and stretched rubber bands around it for plucking out notes (one high and one low). Then I made two shakers by putting taping beads between two bottle caps and beans between two other bottle caps (one sounds high and the other low) and decorating the caps with sharpies. Finally, I made a homemade kazoo from a tube of cardstock and wax paper (it doesn't work super well, but the kids will like it and it will do well enough). All the instruments are small and lightweight and pack away into a small bag.

Busy Bag 32: Mini Automoblox and Felt Roads

Several years ago I found some Automoblox Minis on sale around the holidays and scooped them up. The children played with them for months before they got tired of them and I put them away for a while. Then I forgot about them. I pulled them back out and stuck them in a bag along with some black strips of felt to use as roads. These cars are great because they disassemble like 3D puzzles and can be put back together interchangeably. Any toy cars paired with some felt roads would work as a busy bag though. If I had more time I'd try to make a small garage of some kind to go along with the kit.

Busy Bag 33: Memory Game

Find something in your house you can stick in a bag for the children to use as a memory game. I pulled some tiles from our Qwirkle Game. You could even make your own memory cards on cardstock by drawing matching shapes or letters on the cards.

Busy Bag 34: Preschool Sewing

Cut out small pieces of plastic needlepoint canvas. Include some tipped lacing yarn and beads and let the children experiment. I tied beads onto one end of the yarn to help get them started. Insipiration here.

Busy Bag 35: I Have Who Has Game

I came across a free printable shapes version of the I Have Who Has game for preschoolers. I printed a subset of the cards and stuck it in a bag. The non-driving adult will deal the cards and play the game with the children.

Busy Bag 36: Magnetic Popsicle Stick Shapes

I took popsicle sticks and put small pieces of adhesive magnet strips on each end of both sides of the sticks. I decorated three of the sticks with triangles on one side and four with squares on one side. I left the other side blank for free play. If I hadn't run out of steam I would have done a pentagon set. The children can build the shapes from the sticks, or simple engage in free play with them. Inspiration and variations here and here.

Busy Bag 37: Geoboards with Pattern Ideas

I bought some geoboards for the last car trip and the children love them. I was looking for a way to freshen them up for this trip and I found some patterns. I printed them in flashcard size to give the children some inspiration.

Busy Bag 38: Alphabet Flashcards

I found some beautiful free printable alphabet flashcards and printed two sets. I think the children will enjoy looking through them and can try to find the matches since I shuffled the sets before I put them in the bag.

Busy Bag 39: Mini Chalkboard

This one is fairly self explanatory. I took a mini chalkboard from our Handwriting Without Tears homeschool program and put it in a bag with some chalk and a felt square to use as an eraser.

Busy Bag 40: Small Jigsaw Puzzle

I took a small Melissa and Doug wooden travel puzzle and put it in a bag for the children.

If you like these activities, you may be interested in more.

• Car Ride Activities Set 1
• Car Ride Activities Set 2
• Car Ride Activities Set 3
• Car Ride Activities Set 4
• Car Ride Activities Set 5
• Car Ride Activities Set 6
• Busy Bags Revisited

Car Ride Activities Set 6

As of this morning 30 car travel appropriate busy bags will have been posted and I've finished making a total of 44. I need to fill 4 more to meet my goal. I'll admit, my imagination, resources, and enthusiasm are beginning to run low but I will persevere. Here's the next set of 10 though. Enjoy!

(You can find more ideas in the Car Ride Activities Set 3, Car Ride Activities Set 4, and Car Ride Activities Set 5.)

Car Ride Activities Set 6

Busy Bag 21: Make a Magic Wand Kit

Wrap pipe cleaners around a wooden dowel to form the base of the wand. Then attach some more at the top. Twist some of the top pipe cleaners into spirals and leave the others straight for the children to decorate with beads. Toss some pony beads into the bag with the magic wands. The children can decorate their wand tips with the beads of their choice and then play with the wand. Insipiration here.

Busy Bag 22: Nursery Rhyme and Preschool Song Flashcards

I found some great free downloadable nursery rhyme and preschool song printables. I saved the files and printed them 9 to a page to make flashcards out of them. I'll put them in a bag and let the children look at the pictures and try to figure out which song it is. Then we'll sing the songs as a family in the car. (This site is great! They have the files in color versions for circle times or posting in a classroom and in black in white to use as coloring sheets. They also have supplementary printables to go along with most of the rhymes.)

Busy Bag 23: Simple Marble Run

Find a small shallow box. I used the bottom from a small pizza box. Glue some straws into the box. Draw in a path and a starting and ending point. Of course, no one will examine the picture closely enough to notice that I stuck my stop sign in the wrong spot before having to draw in a second one. Find a marble and let the kids practice getting the marble from start to finish by tilting the box. If I had had several small gift size boxes around I would have made several small marble runs instead of one large one. Check the inspiration link to see several other small examples of this type of activity. Insipiration here.

Busy Bag 24: Felt Faces

Cut out an oval "face" and lots of accessories. I tried to make a girl (although she didn't really turn out well), a crazy jester like character and an alien/monster. See the inspirations for much more well done examples of this activity. My only defense is that I cut mine out in about 10 minutes and just used sharpies for details. It was quick which was important to me this time. Insipiration here, here, here, here, and here.

Busy Bag 25: Number Wheel Clothespin Match

Download and print a pie divided into as many sections as you'd like. I chose one with six sections. Cut out the circle and glue that circle onto a cardboard circle of the same size for added thickness and durability. Then use some stickers to make each section of the pie represent a different number. Write those same numbers on the clothespins and you're ready. The children count the stickers and pin the corresponding clothespin onto that section. Insipiration here.

Busy Bag 26: Foam Beads Sorting and Stringing

I'm hoping that sorting bead like items and stringing them onto a variety of stringing options never gets old. This time it is foam beads paired with a lace and some pipe cleaners. These foam beads can be sorted by color or shape and then laced onto either the pipe cleaners or the lace. Inspiration was my own craft supply shelf.

Busy Bag 27: Yarn Wrapping

This may be too hard for my three and four year old children but it would be great for older kids and I thought I'd try it. I taped a variety of yarns to a variety of popsicle stick configurations for a yarn wrapping activity. At the simple end is just wrapping the yarn around a single stick. More complex is wrapping yarn around a narrow X shape for a slightly different look. Most complex is weaving the yarn to make a god's eye project. I was inspired by my own eyes wandering over my craft shelf.

Busy Bag 28: Sponge Blocks

Take some sponges and cut them into strips to make great travel "blocks" for log cabin style building. If I had thought about it before I had cut all the sponges into strips I would have made some squares too for variety. These make great travel blocks because they are quiet, light, compact and have some texture to them to reduce sliding around in cars and other moving vehicles. Inspiration found here.

Busy Bag 29: Individual Note Pads

Just toss a couple of small memo books, some cool pens (or pencils or crayons) and some stickers in a bag. I wrote a sweet message to each child in each book to personalize the book for them. They may not be able to read the whole message, but they'll recognize their names and "Mama". Inspired by browsing the back to school aisle.

Busy Bag 30: Matchstick Construction

I had some colored wooden craft sticks in my crafting stash as well. I put a handful of the matchsticks and a piece of felt into a bag. The children can create simple pictures from the sticks or even try to build a tower log cabin style. They could also try to make letters or shapes using the craft sticks.

(Happy 41st Wedding Anniversary to my parents. I love you both!)

If you like these activities, you may be interested in more.

• Car Ride Activities Set 1
• Car Ride Activities Set 2
• Car Ride Activities Set 3
• Car Ride Activities Set 4
• Car Ride Activities Set 5
• Car Ride Activities Set 7
• Busy Bags Revisited

Car Ride Activities Set 5

Yes, I'm perfectly aware that this is the third post in a row of busy bags appropriate for car rides. This blog reflects my life and right now prepping for my upcoming trip is my life. I am constitutionally incapable of doing anything in half measures. I am somewhat completely obsessively determined to have two activities per hour of the car ride (one for each child and then they switch). I'm anticipating 24 hours in the car. 24x2=...48. Sometimes being slightly OCD comes in handy. Sometimes not so much. Tune in after the trip to see which category this obsession falls into. If you're interested, see the Car Ride Activities Set 3 and Car Ride Activities Set 4. In order to avoid having to do about 10 consecutive posts like this I'm going to start covering 10 busy bag ideas per post instead of just five.

Car Ride Activities Set 5

Busy Bag 11: Home for a Spider

I cut and circle and then cut notches around the circumference of the circle. Then I painted the circle black and taped one end of a long string to the center back of the circle. I also made a spider out of pipe cleaners. The kids will wrap the string around the circle to make a spider web for the spider. You could also make a white circle and use light blue yarn to make a snowflake for a different theme. Or you could do any color combination and it would still be a beautiful non-thematic project. Older children can focus on weaving patterns to make a variety of interesting results. Younger children will weave randomly resulting in a more spiderweb like creation. Insipiration here.

Busy Bag 12: Golf Tee Marble Balancing

I enlisted my husband's help with a single polite request (or perhaps a little begging and pleading) for this one. He cut some pieces of wood and drilled holes in them for me. We did two different shapes for variety, but I wanted one as a 3x3 grid so that in future years the children can play tic-tac-toe with them. Then just stick the drilled wood pieces in a bag with some golf tees and marbles. The idea is for the children to insert the golf tees in the holes (great fine motor activity with color identification and pattern making potential) and then try to balance marbles on top of the golf tees. Insipiration here and here. For a slightly different version using a foam block instead of wood blocks here.

Busy Bag 13: Color Tint Clothespin Match

Grab a few paint samples like these. Trim a strip down the edge of the samples the width of your clothespins. Then tape or glue those small colored strips onto the edge of the clothespins. That's it. You're done. Stick them in a bag (unattached) and the children have to match and attach the clothespins to the appropriate spots on the paint sample strips. This task works on a more complex version of color identification and strengthens fine motor skills. Insipiration here.

Busy Bag 14: Magnetic Paper Clip Sort

I found adhesive backed magnetic strips at our local big box store for less than a dollar. I stuck one strip to each of four jumbo sized popsicle sticks and then colored around the magnet strips with sharpies to match the four colors of paper clips I happened to have. Done. The children will sort the paper clips by color and attach them to the color coordinated stick via the magnetic strip. Insipiration here. For a slightly different version without magnets here.

Busy Bag 15: Felt Picture - Rainbow

I just sat down with my felt stash and cut the basic component shapes out along with a black square background. The pieces will be separate in the bag and the children will have to assemble the picture almost like a puzzle. Insipiration here.

Busy Bag 16: Felt Fraction Circles

To continue the theme of puzzle like activities with felt, next I made some simple fraction circles from felt. I just cut them out and used a sharpie to write on the fractions. The activity is really just about assembling the four circles. They might do some role playing pretending it is pie, but we'll have to wait and see. Insipiration here.

Busy Bag 17: Treasure Chest Jewel Sort

I took a small case that Ava's hair bands came in and dumped all the hair bands out. Then I found some jewels from our craft stash and sorted out six colors of all five shapes. I could wish the craft jewels had come in six shapes, but not everything can be perfect. That's it. I'm tossing the jewels and the box in the bag and the task is to sort the treasure into the individual sections of the treasure chest by either color or shape. If I had an endless supply of time and energy, I would decorate the case to make it look more like a treasure chest, but they can just use their imagination. This activity is great for fine motor skills, color and shape identification, sorting, and possibly even patterning. I was inspired by my own eyes wandering over my craft shelf.

Busy Bag 18: Button Sorting and Lacing

A while back, while making a craft/art supply order I saw this bag of buttons and wanted them. I had the vague idea they might make a nice collage material. I haven't touched them since. The bag was still unopened. I opened up the bag and sorted out a bunch with holes large enough for some plastic lacing string I bought when I was making busy book pages. Then I tossed the buttons and the laces into a bag for a button sorting and lacing activity. I was inspired by my own eyes wandering over my craft shelf.

Busy Bag 19: Nuts and Bolts Play

This one is pretty simple and yet the kids seem to love it. Just stick a few long bolts and matching nuts and washers in a bag. They screw them on and take them back off. They try to see how many nuts will fit on one bolt. They can make a pattern (one washer, one nut, one washe, one nut). Insipiration here.

Busy Bag 20: Simple Front-Back Puzzles

I found some great free printable animal flashcards. I printed them, cut them out, and laid them out on some cardstock and traces squares around them. Then I cut them in half and glued half of the picture onto the cardstock squares. The other half of the flashcards are the puzzle pieces. Insipiration here.

If you like these activities, you may be interested in more.

• Car Ride Activities Set 1
• Car Ride Activities Set 2
• Car Ride Activities Set 3
• Car Ride Activities Set 4
• Car Ride Activities Set 6
• Car Ride Activities Set 7
• Busy Bags Revisited

Car Ride Activities Set 4

And here are the next five activities I've prepared for the car ride. See the Car Ride Activities Set 3.

Car Ride Activities Set 4

Busy Bag 6: I'm the Ice Cream Man

Cut matching felt ice cream bars in several colors and sew around three sides leaving the bottoms open. Write the colors on the bottom of jumbo popsicle sticks. I also cut green rectangles for money. I imagine the children playing the game together. One child plays the customer and holds the money while the other plays the Ice Cream Man and holds the ice cream. The customer requests a specific flavor (color) of ice cream. The Ice Cream Man assembles the ice cream by matching the ice cream bar with the corresponding stick and handing it to the customer in exchange for some money. Then they can switch roles.

Busy Bag 7: Simple Fleece Marble Mazes

Cut two rectangles of fleece and sew them together leaving a small hole to flip inside out and then insert the marble. Then sew in lines through both layers to make maze. I found the tutorial for making a simple marble maze here. For more complex marble mazes look here. To make a marble maze with a slightly streamlined production look here.

Busy Bag 8: Color Wheel Clothespin Match

I printed a simple color wheel I found online and cut it out and glued it onto a cardboard circle of the same size to make it more sturdy. Then I took sharpies to wooden clothespins and made matching labeled colored clothespins. The task is to match and attach the clothespins to the appropriate sections of the color wheel. This activity addresses color identification, matching, and fine motor skills.

Busy Bag 9: Square Tile Patterns and Play

I actually made this square tile pattern activity a while back. I just pulled it off the shelf and stuck a few patterns and a third of the tiles into one of the travel busy bags. You can get the square tiles on Amazon or at most teacher supply stores. My kids also use these in free play to build towers and roads and to create block like pictures.

Busy Bag 10: Toothpick Pattern Punch

Print a few shapes with dotted lines (or just freehand draw some, or trace some simple stencils) onto regular weight paper. Put those and a few toothpicks into a bag. Our travel trays are felt lined, so that's all we need, but if your child will be working on a hard surface, include a piece of felt or small washcloth. They put the paper shape over the cloth and punch holes along the outline. Then they can hold the completed punched pattern up to the car window or towards a light fixture to see their pattern light up. This is a great fine motor activity.

(Inspiration found: here, here, and here.)

If you like these activities, you may be interested in more.

• Car Ride Activities Set 1
• Car Ride Activities Set 2
• Car Ride Activities Set 3
• Car Ride Activities Set 5
• Car Ride Activities Set 6
• Car Ride Activities Set 7
• Busy Bags Revisited

Car Ride Activities Set 3

I'm getting ready for another 12 hour car ride to New Orleans to visit family. 7 months ago, I posted Car Ride Activities Set 1 and Car Ride Activities Set 2. This year, when searching for inspiration I used the search term "busy bags" online. It is a gold mine. There are so many ideas out there for making simple activities for young children from arts and crafts materials you probably already have sitting around the house. The goal is for the activities to be portable, decently interesting, car appropriate, and numerous. Each child will have a felt lined lap tray with sides (made from a box) to keep the current activity's contents from spilling and sliding around.

Here's my plan. Both of my children are potty trained, but they are only three and four years old. We pretty much have to stop at every single rest area. The car entertainment cycle will run like this:

1. Stop at rest stop. Keep the stop as quick as possible because every extra 10 minutes you spend at a rest stop cumulatively adds at least an hour or two that you can't afford on to the end of the trip. Go potty and stretch their legs by playing a quick dancing, hopping, or running game.
2. When you get back into the car give each child a busy bag or other car ride activity. Let them play with their own for 10-15 minutes and then have them stuff it back in the bag and switch. After they finish the activities they have to put them back in the bags and return them to an adult who will put that activity in the finished (and save for the return trip) pile. Then turn on some tv until the next stop.
3. Watch 30-45 minutes of tv until the next stop.
4. Repeat the cycle approximately 12 times occasionally substituting running into a fast food restaurant for a bathroom break/stretching legs/getting meal to go instead of stopping at a rest area.

So, here are the first five activities I've prepared this time.

Car Ride Activities Set 3

Busy Bag 1: Popsicle Puzzles (x2)

Print a picture your children will like that is approximately 5.25 inches tall and 4.5 wide (or 4 wide and use one less jumbo popsicle stick). Cut the pictures into strips slightly less than the width of a jumbo sized popsicle stick. Glue the strips onto the popsicles. Voila. You have very portable puzzles. I made two and put them in the same bag. That adds the additional difficulty of figuring out which puzzle pieces (craft sticks) go with which puzzle.

Busy Bag 2: Felt Chain

Cut strips of felt. Mine are 1.5 inches wide by 9 inches long. Sew small pieces of velcro to the ends of each strip on opposite sides. The children can use them to make roads, bracelets, necklaces, "paper chain" style links, etc.

Busy Bag 3: Lego Duplo "Puzzles"

Dig into your duplo stash (or any other kind of building blocks you may have) and build several small structures. I deliberately chose the smaller/slimmer duplo blocks to try to save space. I made a vehicle set, a flower garden set, and two random block tower type sets. Take a picture of each set and print the pictures. Put the picture along with the blocks necessary to build the pictured structure in a bag. Now you have homemade portable building puzzles. They can try to build what they see in the picture or simply play with the blocks in their travel trays.

Busy Bag 4: Felt Picture - House

Just sit down with some craft felt and a pair of scissors and create a simple picture. I made a very simple house. Stick all the pieces in a bag and then the children can recreate the picture and just play with the pieces.

Busy Bag 5: Bead and Pipe Cleaner Counting

Take 10 pipe cleaners (or perhaps only five if your children or younger). Wrap a piece of tape around the top of each pipe cleaner and number them 1-10. Put the appropriate number of pony beads in the bag with the pipe cleaners. The children can thread the appropriate number of beads onto each pipe cleaner. They may even notice that they can have each pipe cleaner be threaded with a different color bead. If your children are even younger, skip the number part of the activity and simply stick some pipe cleaners and pony beads in a bag. Consider cutting the pipe cleaners in half as they will be easier to handle that way.

(Inspiration found: here, here, here, here, here.)

If you like these activities, you may be interested in more.

• Car Ride Activities Set 1
• Car Ride Activities Set 2
• Car Ride Activities Set 4
• Car Ride Activities Set 5
• Car Ride Activities Set 6
• Car Ride Activities Set 7
• Busy Bags Revisited

Car Ride Activities Set 2

In order to prepare for a long car ride with two young children I made as many simple activities as I could think of to pull out in the car. If any of you need to go on a trip with young children you might try these. They would be great activities at home too, but these are pretty portable and so I save them for the car trip.

Car Ride Activities Set 2

Button Snakes

I cut two 10 inch long pieces of ribbon. I sewed a button on one end of each ribbon and a 2 inch by 2 inch square of felt onto the other end of the ribbon. Then I cut a lot of additional 2 x 2 inch felt squares in a variety of colors and snipped a buttonhole into the center of each square. The idea is for the children to thread the squares onto the "snake" and back off. Patterning is optional.

Usborne 100 Things for Little Children to do on a Trip

I bought the Usborne 100 Things for Little Children to do on a Trip card set. I sorted out the easiest cards that I thought my little ones could do (2 and 4 years old) and put the rest away for the next trip. About 1/3 of the cards made the cut. I provided them with dry erase markers and an eraser made from felt and let them draw on the cards and attempt to do the activities.

Geoboards with Shape Cards

My children have never used geoboards before, so I picked up a couple of inexpensive geoboards on Amazon. I used Microsoft publisher to make up some simple shape cards to pass out to the children along with their rubber bands to give them ideas for things they can do with the boards.

___________________

Happy New Year everyone!

If you like these activities, you may be interested in more.

• Car Ride Activities Set 1
• Car Ride Activities Set 3
• Car Ride Activities Set 4
• Car Ride Activities Set 5
• Car Ride Activities Set 6
• Car Ride Activities Set 7
• Busy Bags Revisited

Car Ride Activities Set 1

In order to prepare for a long car ride with two young children I made as many simple activities as I could think of to pull out in the car. If any of you need to go on a trip with young children you might try these. They would be great activities at home too, but these are pretty portable and so I save them for the car trip.

Car Ride Activities Set 1

Matching Nuts, Bolts, and Washers

I bought five matched sets of nuts, bolts, and washers (ok, my husband did, but who's keeping track?). I pushed the five bolts up through a piece of cardboard and taped small magnets to the bottom side of the same piece of cardboard to hold the washers and nuts onto the finished project. I then taped another piece of cardboard onto the bottom to make sure none of the pieces got lost. I traced around the washers to give the children a visual cue as to where to store then when they're working and as an additional matching game. I put dots to show where the magnet storage locations were for the nuts. I kept all the loose pieces in a baggie when they were not actually playing with they toy, but the magnets helped keep the pieces from getting lost in the car when they were playing with it.

Matching Pole

I made four of these. One for each child on the way to New Orleans and one for each child on the way home. I wrote letters on dot stickers and scattered the same letters on a paper towel roll. The idea is to stick the letter sticker onto the matching letter on the pole. I did the same thing for Ava, except for hers I drew simple shapes instead of letters.

Threading - Decorating Can

I took a clean old can (in my case, Carnation Instant Breakfast) and stuck those same circle stickers on the lid and punched holes in the lid/stickers for threading. I cut pipe cleaners in matching colors into thirds for threading through the holes into the can. I covered the outside of the can in white construction paper and then contact paper. I put stickers in the cans so the children can decorate their cans (Cars for him and Hello Kitty for her). So the activity consists of decorating their can with stickers and then threading the pipe cleaners into the matching holes. In the dark, glow sticks can be placed in the can (or threaded if they are the right size) and then the light will glow up through the holes in the lid making stars on the ceiling of the car.

If you like these activities, you may be interested in more.

• Car Ride Activities Set 2
• Car Ride Activities Set 3
• Car Ride Activities Set 4
• Car Ride Activities Set 5
• Car Ride Activities Set 6
• Car Ride Activities Set 7
• Busy Bags Revisited