3 Pretend Play Busy Bags for Preschoolers
My four year old daughter is all about pretend play these days so when I decided to join a Busy Bags Blog hop hosted by Playdough to Plato, I knew I had to create some pretend play busy bags for preschoolers!
These three busy bags were a HUGE hit. My daughter really loves the idea that she can grab one of these on her own and set it up on her desk or the dining room table. I loved hearing her whisper and chat while moving the characters of her stories around! I'll share how easy it was to put these busy bags together below, but just a note that affiliate links are used below, which means if you buy something using a product link, my website earns a very small commission at no extra charge to you.
Now I list out the things we used but as you can see, I grabbed suitable toys from around the house. You don't need the exact brands I have but the links are there if you are interested!
Pretend Play Busy Bags for Preschoolers
Busy Bag #1 Veterinarian Office
Fisher Price Little People of your choice
Assorted small animal toys (finger puppets, disney figures, Melissa & Doug Puzzle pieces, My Busy Book Figures, bath squirters, Plastic Pets, etc!)
A few tools from a Doctor Set
1 White mailing label, drawn and scored with the blade of your scissors to resemble gauze and bandages
Free Printable Vet Clinic Play Set Chart from Playdough to Plato
Laminator (optional)
Zipper Pouch (ours is from Staples bargain school supplies section but I do not see them on their website! This set looks great for various busy bag sizes!)
We printed out our free printables several months ago and my daughter loves them! Laminating them has helped keep them in tip top shape and it means we can use dry erase markers on the chart to reuse them over and over again! Usually my daughter uses them with larger stuffed animals and she is the Vet but for this I added a Little People figure as the veterinarian. Turns out though, that my daughter still played the vet and the Little People figure was a pet owner, so bonus!
Miss Four loved giving the pets a check up and her favorite part was the bandages. Seriously. LOVED the bandages. The animals got bandages, she got bandages, I got bandages, we ALL got bandages. We may have made extra bandages….
Busy Bag # 2 Teacher
Fisher Price Little People of your choice
MagiClip Ariel Doll (the teacher!)
Small Notebook
Letter & Number Stickers (Ours were bought long ago, not sure where but these Melissa & Doug ones are nice too)
Pencil
Zipper Pouch (ours is from Staples bargain school supplies section but I do not see them on their website! This set looks great for various busy bag sizes!)
My daughter loves playing school so I knew this would be a good one for her too, but turns out it was also well timed. At preschool they just had a day to celebrate the first letters of everyone's first names. My daughter came home wearing a sticker with her first initial on it so she gave everyone a name and then added their letters. I thought she would use them to teach the kids about the letters but this works too!
Busy Bag #3 Camp Out
Fisher Price Little People of your choice
An LED Tealight
Random socks
Drinking Straw
1 White mailing label
1 Sheet of cardstock or construction paper folded in thirds
Sorry I was not fast enough to catch a photo of the items before the camp out started! Ha! The cardstock folded in thirds makes a tent (You might need to tape it, you might not, up to you!). The drinking straw we cut into 3 and stuck one of our leftover bandages (the mailing label) on the end to resemble a marshmallow. The tea light is the camp fire and the socks are sleeping bags. My daughter liked having the characters roast marshmallows and blow them out and she loved putting them to bed in the sock sleeping bags and tent!
That it is, not too tricky and LOTS of fun for my preschooler. If you have a pretend play fan in your house, I highly recommend taking your pretend play with you in a busy bag!
If you are ever looking for a great portable gift to buy for a kid that is PERFECT for busy bag pretend play, I highly recommend the My Busy Books collection. We often leave the book and playmat at home and tote the figures in a zipper bag or plastic container. My toddler LOVES his Thomas the Train one and both kids like the Minnie Mouse one but they come in almost every major character out there! Totally check them out!
For more busy bags and kids activities, check out these other ideas and be sure to follow my DIY Kids Stuff board on pinterest for more kids activities inspiration!
Busy Bags Blog Hop
Thank you to Malia from Playdough to Plato for organizing such a FUN blog hop! My daughter really got a lot out of it and now we have more ideas to add to our busy bag collection! Be sure to hop through and see them all!
Check out the other creative preschool busy bags from this talented group of kid bloggers. From left to right:
LEGO Patterns Busy Box // Mama.Papa.Bubba.
Printable Animal Puzzles // Itsy Bitsy Fun
Free Letter Tracing Roads // Playdough to Plato
5 Easy Bottle Cap Busy Bags for Tiny Tots // Best Toys for Toddlers
Brown Bear Lacing Busy Bag // Preschool Inspirations
DIY Car Track Busy Bag // Adventures of Adam
Three Pretend Play Busy Bags // Lalymom
How to Make Busy Bags: Thrift Shop Finds // ALLternative
Apple Counting Busy Bag // Coffee Cups and Crayons
Counting Caterpillar Busy Bag // Powerful Mothering
GOT PRESCHOOLERS?! If you enjoy trying simple, playful activities with your preschooler, I invite you to check out a lovely collaborative eBook that I contributed to. Three to Five: Playful Preschool is chock full of approachable activities, step-by-step tutorials and inspiring photographs from some of the top kids bloggers from around the world! There is an subject-based index that helps you select the perfect activity based and many of the activities are perfect for multiple siblings of different ages to do together! Learn more here!
These busy bags are so creative! I always seam to forget that it can be about pretend play too! 🙂
Yep this kept my 4 year old engaged much longer than other things I’d tried with her at the time!
Oh my gosh!! These buys bags are SOOO adorable!!! I’m thrilled that the vet printables came in handy. Sharing and pinning.
adorable! My daughter (almost 3) has JUST started venturing into the realm of pretend play. I love watching it unfold. I’m pinning this to my busy bag board!
Thanks Tiffany, It is a magical age isn’t it? Thank you for pinning!
Love these ideas. My favourite is certainly the camping one. Great use of the candle!