When I teach parent-child music classes for toddlers, I include an activity that is so simple on the surface that I have to tell parents it’s a science curriculum activity and explain what their children are learning.

The Basic Idea

I have a collection of small drawstring bags. Before class, I put a small toy in each one. During class, I bring out the basket of bags, and as we sing the song, the children each come up and collect a bag. They take it back to their grown-up, open it up and look inside. They take out what they find, and talk about it. Then we sing a song related to it, then they bring the items and the bags back to me. Simple, right? Let’s learn more about how this is a really intentional teaching tool.

Science Skills

The foundational skills for science learning are: Observation, Communication, Measuring, Sorting, Inferring and Prediction. When the children take out the items and discuss them with their grown-up, I suggest questions which will help them use those skills.

• Observation and Communication: Ask your child what the item is – do they know what it’s called? What color is it? How are the two items alike? How are they different?
• Measuring: Ask your child to count how many legs it has? How many items are there? Which one is bigger?
• Sorting / Classifying into Categories: What kind of thing is it? Is it like these other items or different?
• Inferring: Talk to your child about whether they’ve ever seen this thing before. What does it remind them of?

We don’t do a lot of prediction with mystery bags, but I do a couple times a year: when I have them return their items, we predict if something will sink or float, and whether it will stick to the magnet board or not.

A Sample Session

Last week, we used our Transportation Counters. In each bag, I put three vehicles – I tried to include 3 different kinds of vehicles and 3 different colors, though I might not have been perfect about it. When they took them out of their bags, I suggested to the parents: “You can count them together. If any have wheels, you can count those.” (Measuring) “Notice what colors they are. Notice what kinds of vehicles they are and talk about that.” (Observing and Communicating)

Then we sang our little song. I asked everyone who had a car to hold theirs up and we sang: “I’ll take you riding in my car, car. x3 I’ll take you riding in my car.” (Tune) I said “I bet you came to class today in a car. It drives on a road. I bet some of you have been in a plane. (I hold up a plane.) Does it go on the road? No, where does it go?” (Infer) And so on with all 6 vehicle types.

Then I tell them it’s time to return their items. (This is good practice in listening to instructions and impulse control.) For young 2’s, I have a paper with 6 colored circles printed on it (you could also just use colored bowls, plates, pieces of paper or whatever) and they put each of their items on the right color. (Sorting) I always tell the parents “if they’re ready for this, they’ll sort onto the right color – if your child doesn’t put it on the right color yet, that’s OK – we expect them to still be learning how to sort by color at this age.”

For when I’m teaching older 2s, I created a worksheet that lets them sort by type of vehicle. I just took pictures of each item, switched them to black and white, and printed that.

Mystery Bag Song

While they are coming to get their bag, we sing these lyrics. The tune is similar to Mulberry Bush.

What’s in the Mystery Bag, the Mystery Bag,
the Mystery Bag.
What’s in the Mystery Bag?
I don’t know. Let’s find out.

Credit where credit is due: When my youngest was two, we went to library story time every week. The librarian, Miss Bernice, sang What’s in the Blue Box. She had one box that she held on to, and in it she would have five random items that started with “the letter of the week.” (She curated her own items, but you can find pre-made collections of items by searching online for “letter of the week activities.”) I have evolved the song and activity from there.

Where to Get Bags

You want drawstring bags that are fairly small so toddlers can handle them, but big enough to put a variety of items in. I think ours are about 4×6 – you could likely do 5×5, or 6×6 or anywhere in that range. I recommend that you get all one color, because if you have a variety of colors, children will battle over who gets the pink bag. I like having extras, because toddlers often grab more than one, and I want to be able to be flexible about that. (For 3 year olds, I am stricter about one per person so they can learn to accept limits like that, but for 2’s, it’s all good.)

My co-teacher just made our bags from quilting fabrics and ribbons she had on hand. It’s a really easy sewing project. These options look viable (Amazon affiliate links), though I haven’t seen them in person: velvet, velvet with stars, burlap, bags with a cool “Egyptian” design, nylon.

Toys / Items and Activities

So, what do I put in the bag? Did I go out to the dollar store or Michael’s and buy a whole bunch of little trinkets to fill them with? Heck no!

I go through what I already own in my preschool classroom and use anything I’ve got 20ish of. (Or however many children you expect to have in advance, with a few extra items just in case.) You could use: small toys, pretend food, building toys, cars or train cars, finger puppets, puzzle pieces, magnets, crayons, stickers, felt board items, and more!

When the children bring things back up to me, I might have them assemble the puzzle, or stick the magnets to the magnet wall or felt items to the felt board, or roll the car down the ramp, or put the sticker or a crayon mark on my paper, or put the sink-float item in a bowl of water.

More Sample Pairings

Here are examples of items; things we notice; song we sing; return activity pairings:

• Felt apples in red and green. Have them notice apples come in different colors. Sing Apple Tree. They bring them up and put them on one of my two felt apple trees (sort by green and red)
• Red, yellow and green pompoms. Notice that they are different colors and different sizes – which is the biggest one? Say that we’re pretending they are apples – apples come in three colors. (I show them a picture.) Sing “picked an apple, picked an apple that was growing in the sun. Then I washed it and I ate it and I picked another one.” (Tune: Clementine) Then they bring them up and put them in the red, green or yellow bowl.
• Farm animal toys, magnets or puzzle pieces – mammals (like cows, goats, pigs) and birds (turkey, duck, chicken). Count legs, talk about whether that animal has fur or feather and whether it lays eggs. Go around the circle: each child holds up their animal – you sing a verse of Old McDonald about that animal. Then children sort the 2 legged birds into one pile and four legged mammals into another pile.
• Plastic spiders. Notice two body parts, count 8 legs. Sing Itsy Bitsy. Have a “water spout” tube they can slide the spider down to return it to the basket.
• Leaves in fall colors. (Silk, felt, paper, whatever.) Notice the colors, talk about fall and how the leaves are changing. Sing “the leaves are turning red x2, hi-ho-the-derry-o the leaves are turning red.” Then do the other colors. Then we get out the parachute and bounce the leaves on the parachute as we sing more fall songs.
• Mittens. Talk about what they are, what color they are, and when we use them. Teach how to put mittens on while singing the Mitten Song.
• A magnet and a non-magnetic item. Demonstrate how magnets stick to the magnet board and then show how others things don’t stick to the board. Use two magnets to show how they attract each other and repel each other Sing to the tune of Did you ever see a Lassie? “Did you ever see a magnet, a magnet, a magnet? Did you ever see a magnet pull this way and that? Chorus: Pull this way and that way, and this way and that way. Did you ever see a magnet pull this way and that?” They come up and test to see if their items stick to the board.
• Polar bears and brown / black toy bears. Count legs, talk about thick fur, where they live. Sing Grizzly Bears are Big and Brown. They bring them up and put them on a picture of the Arctic or on a picture of a green forest.
• Counting bears. Notice all the colors. Talk about how bears sleep all winter. Sing Little Baby Bear Likes to Run. They sort into colored bowls.
• Snowflakes. (Felt or paper.) Count the six sides, notice how they are all a little different. Sing “Little snowflake twirling round, Twirling round, twirling round. Little snowflake twirling round. Lands on my head!” (Tune: London Bridge.) Then sing again, landing on a different body part. Then parachute play, bouncing the snowflakes.
• Shapes. (Magnets, wood shapes, paper, whatever.) They should each have a circle, a square, and a triangle. Your should also have a heart, a star, and a rectangle. Talk about what each shape is called. Count the sides. Sing “Circle, Square, Triangle, Triangle. Circle, Square, Triangle, Triangle. Heart and Star and Rectangle. Circle, Square, Triangle, Triangle.” [Tune: Head, Shoulders…]  When they bring up, sort into piles.
• Zoo animal puzzle pieces. Go around – each child holds an animal up. Talk about what kind of animal each is and what noise it makes. Sing “the lions at the zoo say roar roar roar” and so on around the room, to the tune of Wheels on the Bus. They bring puzzles pieces up and put them in the puzzle.
• Felt stars. Count the points. Talk about when we see stars and where. Sing Twinkle. They place them on felt board.
• Toy fire trucks. (Or pictures.) Talk a little about fire, in a non-scary way. Sing Hurry Hurry Drive the Firetruck. Do a fire drill – tell them we’re going to take all the fire trucks outside and find a fire station box to put them in.
• Frogs. Felt or toys. Talk about frogs and where they live and how they can be out of the water (unlike fish) or in the water. Sing Five Green and Speckled Frogs. They bring them up and decide wheher to put the on a log or in the pool.
• Felt seeds, raindrops, suns, and flowers. You have one of each – they each have just a single item. Use a felt board to show the process of planting a seed, waiting for the rain to fall and the sun to shine, and then a flower growing up. Sing “Dig, dig, dig the earth. Then you plant your seeds. A gentle rain, then bright sunshine. Then flowers you will see.” (Tune: row your boat) Sing the lines separately – everyone with a seed brings it up on that line, and so on.
• Fish. Felt or toys or paper – have four or five colors of fish. Talk about fish – where do they live? How do they move? Sing (tune) “There are so many fishies in the deep blue sea. What color fishy do you see? Red, red, this one’s red. This little fishy is red. Etc.” They bring them up as you call each color.
• Seashells – kids get one shell each in bag, teacher needs 5 shells. They take turns holding them up, talk about what is the same or different about each. Say rhyme: “Five little seashells lying on the shore. Swish went the waves. Then there were 4. Four little seashells, pretty as can be. Swish went the waves. Then there were 3. Three little seashells, all pearly new. Swish went the waves. Then there were two. Two little seashells, lying in the sun. Swish went the waves. Then there was one. One little seashell, lying all alone. I picked it up. I took it home.” They bring them up and put on your “beach.”
• Sink or float. Give each child one thing that will sink, and one that will float. (Coins, rocks, corks, foam bits, etc.) Talk about what they have. Sing to the tune of London Bridge: “Will it sink or will it float? Will it sink? will it float? Will it sink or will it float? Let’s all find out.” They take turns bringing things up one at a time – predicting and testing. (In theory. Really, they all run up at once and dump them in.

For lots more ideas for group times for toddlers or for library story-times, be sure to check out my other blog. https://gooddayswithkids.com/for-professionals/music-time/