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Today we’re sharing links to some of our favorite dry erase busy bag ideas. Our kids love anything involving dry erase markers! I’ve enjoyed finding new dry erase activities to keep the kids learning and having fun.
Dry Erase I Spy
Our kids love I Spy activities, so when we combine I Spy and dry erase markers they are extra happy!
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To make this free I Spy printable into a busy bag we printed one copy of the I Spy page for each of our kids. We printed them on white cardstock (in black & white), trimmed them to slide into the zip-top bag easier, and laminated them.
Then we printed one extra and cut out the objects we wanted them to be able to find. I just picked ones that would be easily recognizable to our kids.
We glued these tiny little pictures unto squares of cut index cards (cardstock would work, too). Thanks, Mom! We left room under each picture to write what it is.
I still haven’t finished writing on all the cards, but I went ahead and laminated the ones that were finished so the kids could start enjoying their new busy bag…it’s a hit!
Our kids can play this I Spy game together or individually by drawing a card and then circling the correct picture on their I Spy mat.
Writing Skills Cards
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We love these Writing Skill Cards from childcareland.com. Scroll almost 3/4 of the way down. The link to the free download is at the very end of the description.
We printed the writing skills cards on white cardstock and laminated them for more durability. After you cut them out, you can punched holes in the corners and placed them all on a book ring. We didn’t do this because we often dived the cards between our toddler and preschooler.
Our kids use washable dry erase markers to trace the lines (from left to right) and then erase their “writing” with a small cloth rag or a sock that has lost its match.
Right now, Jonathan (4 yrs old) is the main one using these cards, but recently Eliya (2 1/2 yrs old) has started showing interest in them as well. Depending on your child’s fine motor skills this could also be a helpful activity into Kindergarten.
3 Inch Letter Writing
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I recently found this wonderful free printable of large capital letters from ABC Jesus Loves Me. Jonathan struggles with writing, so these larger letters will help give him a boost of confidence.
I love that they show where to start and stop with green and red dots!
Scroll down until you see the picture then click on the word print.
By the way, any tips for teaching left handed children how to write correctly?
Alphabet & Number Tracing
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We used these smaller sized alphabet pages from Erica @ Confession of a Homeschooler to make another busy bag.
Emahry, our kindergartner uses this busy bag to practice writing capital and lowercase letters as well as numbers 1 through 9.
Create your Own Handwriting Practice
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I love this website where you can make and print free handwriting practice pages. Emahry has one with her full name, our home address, and our cell phone number in a busy bag.
What are some other dry erase activities that could be made into a busy bag?
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I take activity books apart and put mazes, dot-dot-dots, shape tracing and other activities in a special dry-erase notebook. The word searches can be adapted for non-readers by using them as Letter Searches. Seasonal/Holiday pages can be rotated in and out of the notebook easily too.
I’ve also laminated pumpkin shapes and let them draw faces on them.
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Great ideas! We also have dry erase books that are made of various workbook pages. Last Christmas we did a seasonal dry erase busy book for a long car ride and the kids really liked it. I like your idea about drawing faces on pumpkins. I think I need to make a fall themed dry erase book for our kiddos!
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Love this idea, thanks for sharing and for sharing all these other great sites.
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Your left handed child does not have his paper slanted correctly. Think about how you would slant yours as a right-handed writing and slant his the opposite way. From the picture it looks like he has a good grip but his paper is wrong. That causes lefties to get the “hook” which is so unfortunate. Just a suggestion….I am an elementary resource teacher. I also have a mom who is left-handed and a young son who is left-handed. Check out the left handers website (there are a couple of good ones)…you can order a lot of great tools. Get him his own special LEFT-HANDED scissors…makes a big difference! My mom and son were so excited because they found a left-handed store in Downtown Disney over Spring Break.
Thanks so much for the information! We’ve angled his paper the right way and that seems to be helping. We’re still working on his grip. He can do it, but normally forgets and uses a fist grip. When I remind him he does it correctly. The grip has me a little baffled since he typically displays good fine motor skills…one of his favorite things to do are puzzles!
I’ll definitely look into the resources available for lefties…I had never thought of left handed scissors.
I love the I-Spy idea. It would be perfect for our busy bags at church!
Thank you for sharing this!
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Great idea! For church it might even work better to cut apart the little pictures and glue them in a random order of several index cards. Then laminate the cards. Your child could work through one card at a time with far fewer pieces to drop and lose
Your son looks great doing his letters! I have heard that turning the paper helps them write, but I don’t have any experience with left handed kids. Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library!
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For some reason, I can’t get that handwriting practice page thing to work. I have firefox, I made sure I had the latest flash, but still nothing. I can type in my print, but when I try to print the sheet, I one get “student name”, “date” and the advertising blurb/website info at the bottom.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
I just tried it again myself and the site seems to be having issues. I’d try again later to see if they get it worked out. Sorry I can’t be of more help.
Thank you, for doing that! I thought it was me, lol.
love all of the ideas u have on here. the moms group i am in have been talking about doing a busy bag swap so these templates are awesome. even more so though, responding to the left hander!! I myself am left handed…its kind of a lose lose situation. Many left handed people have the upside down thing-u know where they twist their wrist completely and almost write from above where they are writing. I do not-I hold my pen/pencil w 4 fingers and not your typical 3 (I pretty much use my ring finger as a second thumb!) but I do write at a normal spot on the paper. It literally took me 15 years to figure out how to write from above the paper and not let my hand touch the paper. When you let the side of your hand touch the paper the ink smears and you end up with the side of your hand all dirty. I don’t think their is a “right way” to write as a lefty! Watch and make sure he is holding the pen/pencil/marker correctly but that is about as far as you can go with that. And for that they have those things that slide on over a pencil to make them hold it correctly (I think I slid mine back off the pencil!) Hope this helps and isn’t too confusing
Thank you for your suggestions, as a righty teaching a lefty, I need all the help I can get
We have done this at the preschool I work at but the dry erase marks do not wipe off completely. Any suggestions?
Have the marks been left on the pages for a while or do they still leave marks if you wipe them off right away? You can always use a towel with a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol to get off stubborn marks, but we haven’t had any issue with the washable Crayola dry erase markers.