Everyday Fine Motor Materials – P is for Paperclip (Busy Bag)

If you are always searching for activities that keep kids engaged while building important skills. This paperclip busy bag hits the sweet spot perfectly. It’s one of those brilliant ideas that uses something you already have around the house to create fun, meaningful learning time.

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Kids love the hands-on challenge of working with paperclips, and you’ll love watching them develop the finger strength and coordination they need for writing and self-care tasks.

The best part? You can throw this activity together in minutes and take it anywhere – perfect for those moments when you need something quiet and constructive to keep busy hands occupied.

Safety Note: This activity is recommended for children ages 3 and up due to small parts. Always supervise young children during play and ensure paperclips are stored safely when not in use.

These fine motor busy bags consist of the following

Colorful paperclips
Our printable dot cards (download here)
Card stock (cardboard) or paper and laminator
Optional busy bags pouch or a simple ziplock bag for long term storage

Download the free printable here:

I laminated our dot card as well as individual dots for the durability of the busy bags as they get used tons. But using card stock (cardboard) will work just as well for a quick fine motor activity.

I printed 2 pages of the printable dot cards, the one I laminated as is and the other I cut the circles out and then laminated those.

With the circle dots color match the paper clips and have the older toddler or preschooler clip on the paperclips to the circle. This look my 5 year old a few tries as he kept holding the paperclip the wrong way around so it would not slip onto the circle.

Once he figured out that there were 2 sides to the paperclip things went smoothly and he was able to clip the paperclips onto the circles.

My young toddler who is always fascinated by what her brothers are doing come over to investigate. At age 2 she tried to color sort the paperclips onto the sheet of color dots.

For my toddler packing up busy bags seems to currently be her favorite activity solution to things that are a bit beyond her current skill level.

A few other things you can do with your preschooler with paperclips includes making a chain of them. This was a super fine motor activity as the clips would only chain in a certain way.

Once my preschooler figured this one out he made an entire chain of all the white clips.