Fun Packs! Premade Educational Kits - Planning and Product Development

For a long time, I wanted to created a done-for-you activity pack for homeschool moms or just those wanting to do a bit of learning at home. When the idea first came to me in 2014, I started out putting together kits for my sister-in-law who had two young boys and a set of infant twins. In an effort to help provide some activities for the older kiddos to occupy their time and distract them, I created a number of activity kits for them. These kits went along with a number of printable packs I had created - some with them in mind. Inspired by busy bag swaps I had participated in with other moms of young children at the time, I also included a number of additional busy bag type activities inspired by the packs.

The first pack I created was a Back to School kit using my Back to School Printable Pack. This pack is a fantastic starter pack as it begins with basic concepts for preK and kindergarten. For the kit to send to my nephews, I printed several of the individual pages as worksheets. I also put together some of the manipulative activities from the printable pack like the number puzzle and the bottle cap letter activity. I used recycled bottle caps to make the letters for the hands-on matching activity. I included 4 busy bag activities two printed from the printable pack - matching and memory cards and color sort cards. I also made two unique busy bags - a ribbon snake with school themed foam shapes and a pom pom sorting activity using an egg carton and a clothes pin. I wanted to create a variety of activities, especially providing quiet games that could be played on the go or when their mama needed some extra time for the babies. The busy bags were placed in zip-top bags to make them easy to carry along in a diaper bag or purse.

The first Fun Pack was Back to School themed.

The Football Pack is one of my few unpublished packs.

Over the next several months I continued to create printable packs and compile Fun Packs for my nephews. All the packs included worksheets, manipulative activities, and four busy bag activities. While most of the busy bags were repeatable activities, some were in the form of craft projects like beading crafts or picture building with adhesive foam shapes. I created packs that matched my Football Pack, Halloween Monsters Bundle, Turkey Pack, Gingerbread Treats Pack, Nativity Pack, and Snowman Pack. My own kiddos also worked on these activities and vetted them for their cousins.

As I was putting these kits together for my nephews I was working to figure out how to replicate these packs for other moms. I wanted to create something that had value and included repeatable activities. I wanted to coordinate these kits with my printable packs. I wanted to create activities that were pre-printed and put together so that moms could benefit from these packs if they didn't have access to a printer or other small manipulative items - not everyone has dice or bingo markers laying around. I wanted to create activities that maybe weren't part of the printable pack but could incorporate additional learning concepts as a bonus on top of what is available with just the pack. This would create something new and different even if a parent or teacher already had the coordinating printable pack. Additionally, I could laminate some of the printed components to make them sturdier for multiple uses. Busy bag activities needed to be stored in zip-top bags so they could be easily carried for quiet time activities away from the home.

For my nephews, I was able to go a bit over the top and incorporate other craft supplies and activities I found, but that may be difficult when it came to putting these kits together on a larger scale. I also upcycled some random things I had saved for arts and craft projects like empty egg cartons and salvaged bottle caps - this would not be feasible for kits going to other families. I needed to have some consistency, a template or plan for the Fun Packs so there is uniformity. It also makes it easier to establish "What all is in a Fun Pack?" I decided to create a standard sized Fun Pack and a Fun Pack Junior to offer different sized kits so moms could decide what was best for them. I created a "recipe" of sorts.

The Monsters Bundle available on TpT includes
an extra pack of printable activities.

I was able to get creative with foam shapes and
other craft supplies due to the popularity of 
gingerbread men around Christmas time.

I established that the standard Fun Pack would include 20 worksheet pages which I would compile into a mini workbook, 2 hands-on activities, and 4 busy bags. For the Fun Pack Junior, I would include a 20 page mini workbook, 1 hands-on activity, and 2 busy bags. Each of the packs would be all-inclusive so no additional supplies were needed aside from basic supplies that most people have like writing implements and crayons. The kits would include instructions for each activity so parents or teachers know how the kit could be used. The boxes for each kit would be labeled and of a standard size to make storage easy.

Once I established what would be included in the kit and had plans for packaging, I needed to set it into motion and decide the best options for each item. In 2016, I created a Fun Pack as a birthday present for a friend's son to put it all together and see how it might work out as a finished kit. The workbook I created was spiral bound, but I found it would be easier and more cost effective to create a more traditional stapled binding for the mini workbook. The original workbook was full color and had more pages than ended up putting in the final workbooks. I was better able to refine the specifics I wanted for final packaging with this kit. It had coloring pages, a hands-on activity - grid games - and four busy bags that included activities like clip cards, patterning practice, 3-part cards, and memory cards. I included instructions and insert cards for the busy bags. 

After four years of planning, I created my first marketable and complete pack. I needed to go full-out and establish exactly how these kits would come together and be presented to parents or teachers that may be interested in using them. This Fun Pack was a Fun Pack Junior, another pack created as a gift, so technically, it was a final practice run. This time, the kit was for another nephew. This Fun Pack was based on my Dice Printable Pack since my nephew was really into dice at the time, I created the pack with him in mind. The Fun Pack Junior was fully created complete with all the packaging information and instructions that would be in a final edition of a pack. It included a mini full color workbook with 20 pages of activities. The hands-on activity in this pack was a roll and cover activity. Two half pages were printed and laminated for durability. Two dice and multi-color bingo markers were included to complete the activity. Two busy bags were included in the pack packaged in zip-topped bags for travel and storage. One busy bag activity was a set of matching and memory cards which are part of the Dice Printable Pack. They were printed on cardstock and laminated. The other busy bag was number clip cards. Again, these cards were printed on cardstock and laminated. Clothes pins were included to complete the activity.

All the activities included in this pack are part
of the Dice Printable Pack.

The feedback that I got on all the previous kits I had put together was positive. I was ready to move forward with more packs. In a future post I'll go through the themes selected and what is included in the final packs I've compiled. As of now, I have completed four Fun Packs - two standard sized kits and two Fun Pack Juniors. They've been well received and I'm excited about the development of additional Fun Packs in the future, many of which are already in the works.

So, what kind of themes would interest you? I'd love to get some feedback on activities that appear interesting and other suggestions for the packs.

Candy Corn Pack Prep and Use

It's October and that means a whole slew of Halloween activities! It's my favorite time of year and I've created a number of Halloween packs that feature adorable artwork incorporated into various educational activities that can help strengthen early learning skills. Among my festive themed packs is one of my favorite creations, the Candy Corn PreK Pack which features some classic activities and introduces some new ones not seen in other packs. This pack hasn't gotten nearly the attention it deserves. I believe that at times, it's difficult to tell what the pack is like and what all is included in most typical listings, so I thought it'd be helpful to provide a bit more insight into what this pack includes and how I would normally set it up for use by my kiddos.

The Candy Corn PreK Pack is a 50 page pack - the largest size of individual pack I create. It includes 19 different activities. There are standard pencil and paper worksheets as well as manipulative activities. Many of the pages that can be used as standard worksheets can also be completed using a number of manipulatives to enhance other skills and add interest to them. The inclusion of activities requiring various skill levels means that you can use the activities year after year or address the needs of individual students. A number of activities can be printed on cardstock and laminated to use over and over again.

The activities included in this pack are: 

- Prewriting Practice

- Shape Tracing

- Matching

- Letter Matching

- Size Sequencing

- Letter Practice

- Case Identification

- Letter Trace/Fill in Missing

- Number Trace

- Count & Color

- Roll & Cover

- Alphabet Practice

- Counting/Adding/Subtracting with Manipulatives
- Which is different?

- Counting Practice

- Number Matching

- Scissors Practice

- Addition

- Number Clip Cards

When preparing the pack, I will peruse all the available activities and select the ones I think are appropriate for my child at the time. The simple worksheet pages are typically printed on regular printer paper, hole-punched, and compiled into a binder. Depending on the child, I may leave the worksheets in the binder so they can be worked on all in one place. Alternately, I may remove them from the binder and place them on a clipboard to be worked on. This is especially handy for children who have difficulty working around the binder rings. Often I will print the cover to use on the front of the binder so I know which pack we are working on. If I want to allow for multiple uses of these pages, I can laminate them or insert them into a sheet protector where they can be completed with a dry erase or wet erase marker. And don't forget, not all kids have the attention span to sit and do the whole workbook all at once. There is no need for it to be completed in one sitting or even in order. Pages can be removed a few at a time to work on depending on the area of focus you are working on that day or for that session.

Now, I'm going to highlight several of the activities so you can get a better idea of what is included. This will not be an exhaustive list and will not include images of everything, but it will be a more in depth look at what is included in the pack to provide more information, ideas, and images than you may see in a typical listing.

One of my favorite activities to include is prewriting practice. This activity is a great start for students that haven't quite learned to write their letters but are just starting to gain more control of their pencils and crayons. These pages typically include a variety of straight, slanted, curved, and wavy lines. They can be completed as a standard worksheet as the most basic approach. I like to incorporate different things like markers or crayons in addition to the standard use of a pencil. I also like to add variety by choosing coordinating or seasonal colors to go along with the pack (or let the kiddo choose the colors). There are a number of other ways to hone fine motor skills and add interest to these pages which I have detailed in another blog post HERE. As with other worksheet activities, it is certainly an option to laminate these pages to have the student complete them with a dry erase marker so they can be completed over and over, year after year, or by different students in a class.

The candy corn pack has a plentiful sampling of tracing activities to help little ones with pencil control and fine motor skills. Some activities involve tracing simple lines and curves like in the previously discussed prewriting practice. There is a tracing activity for shapes which helps reinforce naming common shapes in addition to the pencil work. Several letter tracing pages help with identifying and forming letters in addition to learning and reinforcing the knowledge of alphabetical order. Number tracing pages help reinforce numeral knowledge and number order. When compiling these pages for my kiddos, I usually would arrange pages like this in a binder and in an order starting with simple tracing and moving on to more structured tracing. I separate letter concepts from number concepts. This helps mix up the tracing so it doesn't become repetitive despite the multitude of tracing in this pack. As discussed with the prewriting, all of these pages can be used with pencils or crayons. They also can be laminated or placed in sheet protectors and completed with dry erase markers to allow for multiple uses from one printing.

Learning letters and early reading skills are a huge part of early learning concepts. The Candy Corn Pack has a lot of opportunities to promote letter knowledge, alphabet order, and word recognition. There are multiple letter tracing pages as mentioned above. Some pages are simple letter order tracing, letter tracing to fill in missing letters from the alphabet, and tracing key letters from this pack such as the letter 'c' and familiarization of words used in this pack "candy" and "corn" which may not be sight words, but the repetition of the words will help build reading vocabulary as students become more familiar with them. There are tracing pages and seek and find pages for identifying the difference between a capital 'C' and lower case 'c' as well as matching upper case letters with their corresponding lower case letters. All upper and lower case letters are presented in this pack with an emphasis on the letter 'c' because of the theme (candy corn). I usually place pages like these in the binder. Typically I will place the letter activities near each other opting to mix up the style of page. The seek and find pages can be completed with crayons or bingo daubers can be used to mix it up.

As long as we are learning letters, we also need to focus on numbers and early math skills. The Candy Corn Pack is chock full of number pages too! Some activities involve tracing numbers to build familiarity of how to write numerals and learn their order, counting, matching the numeral with the correct number of images, identifying number differences, and simple addition using both images and adding numbers rolled on a die or pair of dice. These pages can be printed on regular printer paper and included in a prepared workbook binder. Like the letter pages, I tend to group all the number focused skills together but I mix up the type of activity so there is variety to add interest. Similar to other activity pages, they can also be laminated or placed into sheet protectors and completed with dry or wet erase markers to extend their life and allow them to be used year after year.

Last but not least among the pages I typically print on regular copy paper, there are also some additional pages that promote more early learning skills. One of my favorites is Which One is Different? and I include several of these pages in many of my packs including this one. I like to include these pages in my prepared workbook binder. I also have a few scissors practice pages to help hone cutting skills with various angles and curves. The cutting practice sheets work best when cut into strips so students can cut the strips apart. The cutting pages are often printed and tucked into the binder pockets until ready to use.

And finally, we get to the part of the pack that may be more fun and interactive and involve activities that can be used year after year: manipulative activities. Granted, some of the other worksheet pages can be used with manipulatives (I plan to talk about this more in future blogs) but these activities can require some additional preparation. I do include manipulative activities in most of my packs (aside from "No Prep" packs). In a lot of cases, I print these activities on sturdy cardstock and laminate them before cutting them out. This helps them hold up better through multiple uses. Manipulative activities can be used as games or allow you to mix it up and provide some fun hands-on thinking. 

The Candy Corn Pack includes Clip Cards for counting but they also encourage fine motor skills as students are required to place a clip on the card to identify the correct numeral. 

Size sequencing cards provide several sizes of candy corn shapes so students can compare and place them in order by size. The activity in this pack has 9 candy corn shapes, so you can use all of them or just a few depending on the attention and level of the students doing the activity. 

My favorite of the manipulative activities is the candy corn math page - three activities are included counting, addition, and subtraction. The pack includes candy corn images to be used in the candy bag, but I like to have kiddos use either real candy corn candies or these adorable mini erasers (shown in the photograph).

I hope you've enjoyed this in-depth look at the Candy Corn Pack. It truly is one of my favorite packs, not only because I love Halloween and candy corn candy, but also because of all the wonderful activities. I pulled out all the stops when I created this pack, incorporating a number of activities I had not had in previous packs. And how can anyone resist the wonderful artwork created by Krista Wallden of Creative Clips. Her art and the art of all the other wonderful creators I use in my packs bring so much to my activity packs and they just wouldn't be the same without it.

Please check out my TeachersPayTeachers store for this pack and many other Halloween themed packs in addition to the whole collection of packs I have available. Let me know what you think, if you have other themes you'd like to see, or if you have any questions about my packs or the included activities.


Bonus! As of the writing of this post, my Fan Freebie which is available only to my Facebook Fans is an adorable pack of 3 Piece Number Cards featuring the coordinating artwork from this pack. The 3 piece cards are another form of manipulative activity that can be used for number identification and matching numerals with number words and coordinating 10-frames. So, check out my Facebook page and grab your freebie while it's available. Don't worry if you miss out, more freebies are always available through exclusive Facebook Fan freebies and through my TeachersPayTeachers store. Some of the seasonal Fan Freebies do cycle back, so there is a chance you may be able to grab it in the future.

Get More Use Out of Your Printable Pack - Prewriting Practice

This series is a set of blogs intended to offer ideas about how to get more use out of your packs. While most activities are typically self-explanatory or include simple instructions, there are a variety of ways some of the activities can be approached. By mixing up the way the activities are done, it can reinforce concepts and help hone skills. It also means that the same activity can be repeated with a different way to increase the amount of use you can get out of a single pack providing you with more bang for your buck.

Prewriting Practice

One of my favorite activities to include in my packs is prewriting practice. It's a basic skill for students just learning to handle and control a writing implement. It involves more control than coloring by requiring the tracing of a dotted line. The lines are typically a mix of straight, slanted, and curved lines. Though the activity seems simple and straightforward, there are a number of ways to complete the activity that can hone skills, introduce new ones, and keep some simple activities interesting for students.

Below I've described a number of different ways this activity can be done so you can get more life out of the same activity within a pack or an activity that is repeated in different packs you may own.

Laminate for future use

One of my most common recommendations is to laminate some of the activities for future use. While prewriting activities seem like a simple trace and toss activity, they can often be laminated. Students can use a dry or wet erase marker to complete the activity. It can then be wiped down and used for the same student, a different student, and saved for subsequent years. This is a great option for holiday and seasonal activities as they have a limited amount of time they can be used in the classroom, so it's handy to save the paper and get multiple uses out of the same pages.

Incorporate various writing utensils

Start very young students with easier to hold instruments like wide crayons or markers. They can then work their way to using thinner more detailed utensils like colored pencils, thin markers, or pens.

As a bonus tip, try having students watercolors to trace the lines.

Bonus tip 2: keep this activity interesting by incorporating color, selecting a few to use throughout the activity - this is especially fun for seasonal activities.

Take advantage of other fine motor approaches

A simple tracing activity can become a base for other fine motor activities. Provide students with manipulatives to line up with the dotted line. Use craft sticks, tooth picks, chenille sticks, or string and have students match the smaller items up with the lines.

Practice glue skills

Have students place a glue line to glue ribbon or string to the lines. Provide small beads, decorative scatter pieces, confetti, sequins, or other small items that can be pasted along the line. A glue stick may also be used for this option if you are using something lighter like tissue paper squares or string. For less mess, provide self adhesive stickers to stick along the line.

Increase the difficulty

A great way to save paper and enhance the skill level is to increase the difficulty by printing the activity at a smaller size. This means more focus and control are needed to trace the lines at half the size or smaller. 

I hope these ideas have given you inspiration to get more out of this great activity. Let me know if you've tried them or if you have other ideas for ways you've used these activities! Keep checking back for more ideas for other pages included in my prek packs!

Packs featured in this blog:
Candy Corn PreK Pack
Apple PreK Pack
Fall Leaves PreK (No Prep, Printer Friendly) Pack
Pumpkin PreK Pack