create (with kids): busy numbers

My war against plastic lids continues, as shared here. I think I've discovered a creative way to hand them off onto unsuspecting parties... 

turn them into educational busy activities to gift to the little people in our lives! With a birthday quickly approaching for our special little friend Ezra, we had the perfect opportunity to try it out. 

I began with trimming the rim off of a plastic lid. We then divided it into six sections, drawing lines with a permanent marker. The off-centering was unintentional (ahem), but worked well since some sections had more stars to hold than others.

We decided which number, from 1-6, went to which section and filled it in with that amount of star stickers. To help protect the stars against busy little hands, I cut a piece of contact paper to cover the inner part of the lid. Finally we created a clothespin for each section by writing the number on both sides of the clothespin.

Tucked into a up-cycled little plastic bag, it was ready to give. A perfect gift for him, and an excellent way to see our plastic lid pile diminish for me! (smile)