Let’s Put That Together
I don’t mean to literally build anything though! We want your child to look for reasons things are the same and different and then make groups to go with their thinking. And to top that off, we want your child to be able to explain their thinking or why they made the groups they did. Sounds hard? But it really isn’t!
The easiest way I have found to teach this skill is with buttons. Get a small bag or cup of buttons. Have your child sort them by:
- Size
- Color
- Number of button holes
- Shape
I started out with color since it seems to be the easiest to understand. The first couple of times we work on this skill we have the kids divide the buttons into two groups. An example of my thinking would be: buttons that are blue, and buttons that are not blue. You can do the same thing with each of the ideas. After they have the simpler ideas of grouping things only two ways go on to having them group them in many ways. An example of that would be: Small, medium and large button groups.
The more you can have them talk about their ideas for their groups the better. Question their thinking, see if they can trick you, and talk a lot about the process of grouping items with similar and different attributes.
Other ideas you can use for sorting:
- Keys
- Toys
- Blocks
- Hot Wheel cars
- Super Hero figures
- Barrettes and/or ponytail holders
- Earrings
- Stickers
- Silverware
- Plastic dishes
- Play food
- Clothes/shoes