Sorting Materials
Age group
- Early Years (Age 3 to 6)
Curriculum Goal
Kindergarten: Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviour
Describe, sort, classify, build, and compare two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional figures, and describe the location and movement of objects through investigation (#17).
Related Links
Context
- Students and teacher will be sitting on the carpet in a circle.
- Students will be working in pairs.
Materials
- Different sets of materials (counters, small bears, buttons, etc.)
- One set for each pair
Lesson
- Students will be working in pairs, with each pair assigned one type of material.
- Tell students that they are to sort that material by one characteristic in whichever way they choose.
- As children are sorting the materials, go around to each pair and ask how they sorted the material.
- Give students the language by saying you sorted by colour or you sorted by size or you sorted by shape.
- Ask students how many groups they made.
- Then ask students to sort the materials using a different characteristic.
- When students have finished sorting ask them to explain to the group what characteristics they sorted by.
Look Fors
- How do children work together to sort the materials?
- Can they verbalize the characteristic they used?
- Are there any unique ways children divide materials into groups? Are they able to divide materials into a new way using a different characteristic?
Extension
- Take away one group from the sorted material and ask students to re-sort their material using a different characteristic.
- Challenge students by having them try this activity with two different materials together.