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Our busy binders have been an ever evolving part of our learning world. It started off as only one binder with a handful of fun Pinterest finds. It was the busy binders that inspired me to start making our own activities. I caught busy binder fever if you will. *giggle snort* Judge my nerdiness if you like but these busy binders are a favorite of Squeaks.
On days when we’re not really scheduled to “play school” or I don’t have enough pre-planned activities for my hungry learners, busy binders save the day. Now our one little binder has grown into two; one for ABC’s and color activities, and another for numbers and shapes activities. They’re both awesome and still full of mostly Pinterest finds but I’m slowly adding my own designs as well. I’m excited to share links to all the fun!
Lets start with the “ABC’s and Colors” busy binder:
1. Tucked into the front inside cover pocket are these cool tangram alphabet printables. I downloaded the whole alphabet but only printed out and laminated the letters for Squeaks’ first name. In the zipper pocket up front are multi color pompoms and kids jumbo tweezers. We use these for counting, sorting colors, and fine motor skills.
2. This is one super awesome color matching wheel. Just add clothes pins.
3. Pocket three is completely custom by yours truly. These are a variety of first name activities for Squeaks. I created an editable name activity set for you here!
4. Another custom pocket. Alphabet fishing! I cut out multicolored fish on my Cricut and wrote a letter on each one. Then I attached a metal paperclip to each fish. A small piece of dowel rod, string and a magnet make a fishing pole to pick up the fish. Cute, no?!
5. Gotta love Target dollar spot during back to school season. Picked up these fun alphabet puzzles and punched holes directly in the packaging so I could store them in the binder.
6. In the back cover pocket are these alphabet tracing pages. Just pop them in a clear dry-erase pocket or laminate, and learn on!
7. (Not pictured) Check out our alphabet clip cards! They’re nice and large with a simple clean design, and they include vowel sound examples. Love!
8. (Not pictured) My alphabet matching wheel has made it so easy for Squeaks to practice her uppercase and lowercase matching. We love making it a race to see how many she can match in a certain time and the clothespins make for extra fine motor practice!
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Check out all of my Busy Binder Stater Kits here!
Now for the “Numbers and Shapes” busy binder:
1. The inside cover pocket holds some space theme play dough mats. I made these ones just for us but here is my inspiration. A few weeks ago Squeaks asked to learn about astronauts so I mixed these into the lesson. Each mat has a number on it and you have to count out and make the correct number of stars with play dough. Cute!
Also in the pocket is our Roll It, Write It, Count It game. We have oversized dice for Squeaks to roll out a number, the page is laminated to make it dry erase so we can practice writing the number out, and then in the last section we count it out using color chips or some super cute mini-erasers from Target dollar spot. A mini clear zipper pouch from Target holds our mini-erasers and counting chips.
2. I love these oversized number flash cards. We use them as play dough mats, either counting out play dough balls for each card or “tracing” each number in play dough. This pocket also holds our stack of lego sequence cards and our dice for the Roll It game.
3. Next up, snap cubes! I love these things! I have oversized cards to show how to make numbers 1-10 with cubes and some more sequence cards. These snap cubes are also great for keeping Little Dude busy during big sisters lessons.
4. This Bugs In A Jar game is one of Squeaks favorites and it’s such a simple idea. We use the same dice from pocket number 2 to roll and count out the number of bugs for the jar. That’s it! Doesn’t get any easier. I’m sure you could come up with variations on this but we like to keep it simple.
5. This pocket holds my number matching wheel. Squeaks was having trouble matching the written numbers with the counted number. This wheel has helped tons. I will be making another one with numbers 11-20 soon.
(UPDATE– It’s here and it’s awesome! Check it out.)
6. My shape matching game is one of the first activities I ever made. Each shape is matched to the laminated sheet underneath using velcro dots. It remains a favorite because toddlers and velcro…it’s like cat-nip.
7. Fun numbers and shapes puzzles, and clip cards from the cornucopia that is the Target dollar spot. Again, I just punched holes directly into the packaging to store them in the binder.
8. (Not pictured) We can’t have too many clip cards! Squeaks loves the cute bug design and ocean theme on ours and they’re a fun and simple way to practice counting and number recognition.
Yikes that’s a lot of links! We really do love these busy binders though and hope you do too.
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Katherine Rooney says
Hello! Do you sell these directly?! Would love to purchase one!
Kristen says
Hi Katherine! No, I don’t sell finished Busy Binders, but all activities are available to download and print at home in my shop. So glad you like them!
Elizabeth says
I woud love love love to purchase a busy binder fully loaded for my 3 years twins.. what would be my cost?
Kristen says
Hi Elizabeth! Unfortunately right now I’m not taking orders for completed binders, but I encourage you to check out my Etsy shop (www.etsy.com/shop/arrowsandapplesauce). Every activity you need to get started is there, and everything is printable. You can also visit my “Recommended Supplies” page (under the “Shop” tab) to see the exact tools I use to build my binders. Hope that helps!
Renee says
Hey! SUCH a great idea. So are the binders freely accessible to the prek kiddo (4 year old in my house) whenever they want? Do they know how to take out an activity or do you have to help them set it up? Do you have a post that kind of introduces the idea? Thanks!!
Kristen says
Hi Renee! They are easily accessible to my kids (4yo and 2yo) but I do help them set up. We built our binder slowly so we introduced each activity as we found/made them. I don’t have a specific post on how i did that, but if you search for one of the activities I made (ex. alphabet matching wheel) you’ll see a post for that specific activity. Hope that helps!
Stephanie, One Caring Mom says
I love this idea! I have a son getting ready for preschool so this will be a great help. Thanks!
Kristen says
I’m so you found it helpful, Stephanie!!
Antranette Smith says
Do you sell your binder books
Brittany Holstine says
Hi Kristen! I love your binder ideas! I have tons of those target dollar spot learning games and I never thought of hole punching them into my 4 year old’s daily binder that is pure genius 🙂
I also do daily binders. I have one for writing letters/letter sounds/name writing practice, another for counting/writing numbers/math, and one for Science. The science binder is filled with velcro activities about the human body, animals, recycling, magnets, and lots of other science topics. I laminate worksheets for cut and paste activities then instead of her gluing the cut pieces on she can attach them with velcro so she can reuse the worksheet over and over.
Great ideas overall!
I do struggle with figuring out what she should work each day? Perhaps she could do work in one binder a day or one activity out of each binder daily? How do you split it up?
Kristen says
That’s genius Brittany! Great ideas! I unusually just pull out the binders when they ask for them (about every other day) and let them choose activities. I suppose I could add a little more structure but it’s working well for now. 🙂
Monique says
Hello really love your binder this would work great for my student. How can i start with little or no time to create these?
Kristen says
Hi Monique! I’d suggest downloading my starter kits. Then you can just add more activities as your students learn. That’s what I’m doing with Squeaks. 🙂
Here’s a link to the ABCs and Colors kit: https://www.etsy.com/listing/584820254/alphabet-and-colors-busy-binder
Here’s the Numbers and Shapes kit: https://www.etsy.com/listing/554651368/numbers-and-shapes-busy-binder
Dana says
Do you sell the ABCs and Color busy binder on your Etsy shop? I would be interested in being able to order this and customize the ABCs name recognize for a particular student of mine. I would be interested in purchasing something like this as well as the number and shapes binder from your store!
I am a preschool intervention specialist.. your binders are amazing and would save me so much time!!!
Kristen says
Hi Dana! I would love to help you with your students! Please email me with specific activities you’d like in a binder and I can set up a custom listing for you. kristen@arrowsandapplesauce.com
Jemima Perez says
Can you sell one busy binder to me? This a great idea and t could be a super good business for you.
Kristen says
I actually do sell a Numbers & Shapes Busy Binder starter kit on my Etsy shop. Check it out! http://bit.ly/BusyBinderStarter
Melissa says
Wow!! Great ideas!
Kristen says
Thanks Melissa! Hope you found some helpful ideas.