Busy/Quiet Boxes - Five Little Fishes

After discovering the idea of busy or quiet boxes online, I scoured Pinterest for ideas that I could put into action in order to promote my toddler's imagination and quiet activities.

If you are unfamiliar with busy or quiet boxes, they are quite simple and can be implemented in a number of ways. A box can be created for each day of the week (or just the weekdays), bags can be created for each separate activity so you can pick and choose when to share certain activities, or bags can be created that can be taken out to restaurants and shopping trips.

My son and daughter really enjoy Little Baby Bum, in particular the song Once I Caught a Fish Alive. So when I saw a felt fish activity someone else had created (Hawkins Family Blog), I knew that I needed to create a modified version for my toddler. So even though the song only has one fish being caught, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to encourage counting.

I used material that was already purchased for my Christmas Tree Activity. I cut a background of blue and white felt to represent the clouds or waves atop the ocean, tan for the sand, brown and black rocks, different green shaded seaweed, and fishes of five different colors.

Resources 

The Hawkins Family Blog 
ABCkidTV - Nursery Rhymes - 12345 Once I Caught a Fish Alive

   

Busy/Quiet Boxes - Funny Felt Faces

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After discovering the idea of busy or quiet boxes online, I scoured Pinterest for ideas that I could put into action in order to promote my toddler's imagination and quiet activities.

If you are unfamiliar with busy or quiet boxes, they are quite simple and can be implemented in a number of ways. A box can be created for each day of the week (or just the weekdays), bags can be created for each separate activity so you can pick and choose when to share certain activities, or bags can be created that can be taken out to restaurants and shopping trips.

This activity was based upon the idea of creating faces out of pre-cut felt.

I decided to create two skin tones (for now) as well several hair styles, eye colors and shapes, noses, and facial hair. I used green felt left from my Christmas Tree Activity for the background and sewed plastic canvas inside to provide some shape and stability.

In the future, I would like to create additional hair styles in different colors and additional mouths to show different emotions.

   

  

Busy/Quiet Boxes - Straw

In order to promote my toddler's imagination and quiet activities, after discovering the idea of busy or quiet boxes online, I scoured Pinterest for ideas that I could put into action.

If you are unfamiliar with busy or quiet boxes, they are quite simple and can be implemented in a number of ways. A box can be created for each day of the week (or just the weekdays), bags can be created for each separate activity so you can pick and choose when to share certain activities, or bags can be created that can be taken out to restaurants and shopping trips.

Crazy Straw Threading 

The crazy straws were purchased at a dollar store, while the felt was left over from previous projects.

The goal of this quiet activity is to thread the felt pieces along the straw to promote the development of fine motor skills.