Boredom Busters

I made this fun activity basket for my three-year-old grandson.  A few people have asked about it so I decided to post some pictures.  My friend, Peggy, made one as a gift to entertain two little boys while their mom is busy with a newborn baby.  I thought it was a great idea, especially when she told me about most of the things she had found at the Dollar Store.  Here's what I purchased there:   The basket and ten gallon size Ziploc type baggies.  Then I looked for more things in the kids' section in the store and went home and typed up the labels for each bag.

 Pipe cleaners to bend into different shapes such as a star, circle, square, triangle, and people.

 Adhesive backed small foamed letters to spell a name or anything else.

 A foam nine-piece puzzle.  I found "Cars" which is one of Blake's favorites.

 Plastic cookie cutters, construction paper, and pencils to trace them.

 I drew lines on card stock to practice cutting and enclosed a scissors.

 I found this matching game (deck of cards size) for only a dollar!

The other ideas in the basket are:  stringing straw segments or beads onto shoelaces, drawing shapes, letters, and numbers onto a small dry-erase board, making a paper chain (1" strips enclosed), dice games, a pad of school-lined paper for practicing letters, and ribbon to braid.  It's a great rainy day activity, or "Mom, I'm bored" box.  They especially enjoy choosing which thing they'd like to do.