Busy Bag: Geoboards

So, after cleaning out my classroom my house is bursting with boxes of all the school stuff I have bought or inherited over the last 10 years (during college I scavenged a lot from my mentor teachers, and purchased tons of materials my first couple years teaching).  Having taught 6 different levels of math, from remedial 6th grade to basically 10th grade with my enrichment students, I have all sorts of different supplies.

I have about a dozen or so geoboards just sitting in a box, and I realized that Theo would probably love playing with one, so I went on a search for ideas for this new bag.

Just using the rubber bands will be a great activity for him at this age (almost three), helping him with his fine motor skills, but I got some great ideas from the blogs below about how to extend the length of this bag with pattern cards, and even templates to copy his own designs on (rocket ships!).  He of course loves those, because he gets to use a dry-erase marker for that, but he's not quite ready to use them properly yet.

http://justfordaisy.blogspot.com/2012/10/making-geoboard-busy-bag-with-activity.html

http://bakersfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/geoboards.html

I gave him the board yesterday, and the board and bands kept him busy for a good hour, before he started using the rubber bands in other ways (with his crank on his barn).

Creating lines seems to be his favorite use of the board right now, it'll be fun to see what all he comes up with. 

Theo's Lines

Mama's Rocket Ship!

Additionally, the benefit of these geoboards, though not as cute as the handmade ones, is that they are reversible.  Check out the dodecagon on the back.