Busy Bag Swap: Day 9 (Clothespin Matching)

I didn't really know Shawna before the Busy Bag Swap, other than working out with her a few times a couple years ago in a Women's Group exercise class. But, it was great to get to (really) meet you, Shawna, and I'm thankful that you wanted to be included in the Swap!  Thank you for all of you hard work in putting this together! I know it was a lot of cutting and LAMINATING!  This activity will be getting a LOT of use in my house as we use it to sharpen letter recognition and counting skills!  I really like the variations that you included to expand the use of these cards.  Nice touch!

Family: Daniel (2 1/2 years), Samantha (1 month)

How do you spend your free time? Besides raising my kids, I love cooking, gardening (or attempting to grow veggies in the backyard), reading, and running (though not lately due to the new baby and the heat!).

When you were a child, what was one of your favorite ways to spend your day? I loved the summer when my brother and I were home with my mom.  We would spend the morning drawing/coloring and playing Barbies and green army men indoors, eat lunch, watch a bit of TV together to let our food settle, then ride bikes to the neighborhood pool where we would spend the rest of the afternoon swimming and being silly.

What is your fondest memory with your mom as a child? I loved curling up on the couch with her on lazy afternoons watching old black and white Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger movies.

What does special time with your children look like?  I turn off all the distractions (like the phone, the internet, etc) and give them my undivided attention.  We do quiet activities together like reading stories, singing, and painting.

What is your favorite outdoor activity to do with your child? going on walks and playing in the park

My favorite blogs are: www.1plus1plus1equals1.com

What is a tradition that you would like to hand down to your children? A favorite tradition that you want to pass down with your children? Cooking and eating together as a family.  We also have the “you are special today” red plate that you get to eat on when it is your special day, like a birthday.  (It turns out my family is not the only one.)

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Clothespin ABC and Number Matching Cards Busy Bag helps your little one learn their letters and numbers, while they also develop their fine motor skills.  The idea for this busy bag came from 1Plus1Plus1, a great resource for all toddler learning activities.  You can see her posts on letter matching  and number matching that inspired this bag.

Each bag contains an instruction card, several mini clothespins, red/yellow letter cards for each letter of the alphabet, and blue/green number cards for numbers 1 to 10.  You simply have your little one clip a clothespin on to the matching letter or number.  For example, the upper case “A” card has an apple, and your little one should pick the lower case “a” as the one that matches.  I color coded the sides for easier sorting: red = upper case, yellow = lower case.

You can also change it up by practicing the sounds each letter makes, using the picture on the card as an example.  You can even put several cards out on the table and have your little one find a particular card based on saying the letter or making the letter’s sound.  For instance, “Can you find the card that starts with the letter A?” or “Can you find the one that starts with the ‘aah’ sound?”.

The number cards work in the same way.  There are two sides: the blue side for regular number identification and the green side for more advanced questions.  On the green side, you can have your child also identify the number of items a certain color or shape, instead of just the number of items on the card.  They also have pictures of the hand signals for more practice with fine motor skills.  

Want to get even trickier?  You can practice sorting and bigger/smaller concepts by putting several cards out on the table and asking your child to find the biggest/smallest number or to sort them in increasing/decreasing order

And of course, you can always just use the cards to talk about the pictures on them, especially if your little one is not ready yet for letter/number matching.

Want to make one yourself?  It’s easy!  Here is what you need:

- A color printer to print out:

Instruction cards

Red Uppercase letters cards

Yellow Lowercase letters cards

Blue number cards 

Green number cards

- Paper or cardstock for printing, 5 sheets if you print on both sides (cardstock will be more durable for those little toddler hands!)

- Miniature clothespins (You can get these at Hobby Lobby or the dollar store for pretty cheap.  I bought them in bulk from Amazon since I was making 26 bags!  It cost me $10 for 250 clothespins.

- Laminating for more durability (optional)

Enjoy!

Downloads:

Instruction cards

Red Uppercase letters cards

Yellow Lowercase letters cards

Blue number cards 

Green number cards

**Terms of Use:
We'd love for you to feel free to use the files that the ladies in our Busy Bag Swap have worked hard to create, but please keep in mind that the printable images and files on this site are some of our ladies own exclusive designs. They have been generous enough to freely share them.

The terms of use for using the free printable crafts and activities are as follows:  You may share these printables with students, friends, neighbors and family or even with your child's class full of children. As long as you share for personal use only. Please do not post printables on a web site - instead provide a link back to the original posting on this site. Linking to the original page is both welcome and appreciated.

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                                       Go check out the I Spy Bottle Busy Bag on Grow!