Back to activities
Hand strengthThinking play

Fill and Empty Bag

Toddler repeatedly fills and empties a soft bag with safe objects, driven by the containment schema.

Cartoon illustration of a parent and child at home doing Fill and Empty Bag.
  • Age12 months to 2 years
  • Time5 to 15 minutes
  • EnergyCalm
  • CostFree
  • WhereIndoors
  • Prep5 min

Your toddler fills a soft bag with safe objects and tips them out again, over and over, a calm and absorbing task driven by their urge to fill and empty.

How to do it

  1. Set out a soft open bag or pouch and a small pile of safe objects beside it.
  2. Sit nearby and let your toddler put objects into the bag one at a time.
  3. When the bag is full, let them tip everything out however they like.
  4. Let them repeat the filling and emptying as many times as they want.
  5. Sit close and enjoy it with them rather than steering the pace.

What you need

  • Bag
  • Safe objects

Make it yours

Younger (12-15mo): Use a very wide bag and a few large objects. Older (2-3y): Add a drawstring they can pull or count objects as they go in. Siblings: Give each child a bag to avoid grabbing

Try this with your child.

Tell PLAI™ about your child and this moment. It shapes the activity to fit.

Try it in the app