Sorting and classifying are skills that are most times acquired naturally. Of late, I am noticing that my toddler twin girls are sorting and classifying their toys when it is time to pack up. They understand that items belong to a particular group. As parents, we need to encourage our little ones to sort and classify and provide opportunities for them to do so around the home as sorting and classifying are fundamental skills required for mathematical understanding. A child must be able to sort and classify objects into groups before they can take part in significant number learning. Also, children must understand what they are counting before they are actually able to count them.
When our children are able to sort and classify objects, it helps them to make sense of the world around them. For example, in science, they can sort and classify things that are living and non-living, differentiate between plants and animals, day and night, circle and square, and one and ten. Children begin to apply logical thinking to objects, events and mathematical concepts they encounter.
Sorting and classifying teach young children about sizes, shapes, colours, similarities and differences. The concepts of simple sorting and classifying help children to understand the notion of belonging to a group and, of equal importance, to understand that objects can be grouped in different ways or regrouped. For example, a blue square could be grouped with blue objects, squared objects or objects that are blue and squared.
Is sorting and classifying the same thing?
Sorting and classifying are terms that are often used synonymously when dealing with prenumber tasks associated with grouping objects or attributes. However, the terms sorting and classifying can be presented as two separate levels of logical thinking. Some theorists make a distinction between simple sorting and classifying.
Simple sorting is viewed as a beginning type of grouping task in which the way objects are to be sorted is shown or told to the child, for example: “Give me all the red buttons”. Children are given or told the grouping pattern for the objects.
Classifying on the other hand requires children to discover how a given set of objects might be grouped. “Look at these red buttons and show me how you could put them into groups.”(By shape, buttonholes, texture or shade etc.) The children are not told to put objects into groups based on a particular grouping or attribute as the case with simple sorting tasks. With classifying tasks children are presented with a set of objects and then asked to group the objects based on their thinking as to how the objects in each group might be the same or different.
In short, for simple sorting tasks, young children are told or shown the grouping pattern and with classifying tasks children need to determine the grouping patterns for the set of objects presented to them on their own. However, when dealing with young children the words sorting and classifying is used interchangeably.
When children learn to sort and classify objects later in Mathematics, they are able to:
- Identify sets for differences and similarities.
- Make matches.
- Classify items by single / multiple attributes.
- Recognize and create patterns.
- Understand patterns, relations and functions.
- Sort shapes into categories of quadrilaterals.
- Sort numbers according to whether they are prime or composites, even or odd, negative or positive, etc.
When our young ones start showing interest in sorting and classifying, I have learned over the years from working with young children, that the best way to start them off is to present them with an unsorted group of items such as buttons, shells, lids, stones, fabrics of different colours and patterns, etc. — items that can be found around the home that lend themselves to safe exploration.
For a sorting and classifying activity, you can provide your child with containers that facilitate sorting, for example; tins, trays, plastic cups, wooden bowls, jars, egg cartons, ice cube trays, etc. You should also work with them to help them create simple labels to further their understanding that items are sorted and classified into categories or groups based on their similarities or differences.
While working with your child, have a conversation saying, “Let us make labels for these objects/items,” or “What do you think we should call this group?”
Activity I used for sorting an unsorted group of items
For this activity, I used brown paper to create a large mat because I have twin toddlers, and I think it is more convenient for them until they are more willing to share.
I went ahead and made the labels beforehand because they just turned two, and their attention span at this age is short and varies based on what they are doing. The sorting is more interesting for them than the creation of labels.
How to put this activity together:
- I started the girls off with only three items in nature because I did not want to overwhelm them. The items were wooden pieces, stones and shells.
- I placed them all together in a container with magnifying glasses and tongs.
- We love working on the floor, so we taped the paper down to prevent it from ripping.
- I also placed wooden circles with numbers on them so that the activity could be extended.
How this activity helped my toddlers:
- They were able to sort the items in the container based on similarities and differences.
- They were able to use their magnifying glasses to observe patterns on the stones and shells.
- They were using their senses of sight and touch.
- They were able to work on fine motor development by using the tongs to move the items to their labelled categories.
- They worked on their one-to-one correspondence.
- They reviewed numbers 1–10.
- They were able to work as part of a team, developing social skills.
- They were able to identify the beginning sounds of the words as well as letters in words. They even started looking to see how many times they could find the letter ‘s’.
When I worked with my toddlers, I asked them open-ended questions so that I could understand their thinking. I also have periods during any activity where I remain quiet to see what they do. When this is done, you can identify the areas in which they are confident and the areas in which they still need some encouragement.
Sorting and classifying items that are the same
When our toddlers start to show that they understand that items are sorted and classified based on similarities and differences, we can focus on having our toddlers sort a set of items that are alike, for example, buttons of different sizes, shapes, colours or textures. As you work with your toddler, you might need to provide them with vocabulary that helps them to classify the buttons. Example: “These buttons are square,” “These buttons are colourful,” “These buttons are so shiny,” etc.
Encouraging children to sort and classify when cleaning up
Our little ones strive in an environment where there is order. When children are cleaning up, it is a great opportunity for them to learn to sort objects. On a daily basis, show your toddlers how to clean up and pack away their toys. When they put away their toys, they are learning to sort, classify, match and organize objects based on their attributes.
Some items our little ones can sort and classify in and around the home.
- Silverware
- Crayons can be sorted by colour and size
- Blocks can be organized by type, shape, and size
- Buttons
- Coins
- Laundry
- Rocks
- Leaves
- Pasta
To make it easier for them to sort around the home, we can provide them with picture/word labels so they can learn where things belong.
When working with your child to clean up around the home, you can ask the following questions to understand their thinking.
- Why do you think we should put this here?
- How can we sort these?
- What should we do with these?
- Which ones go together?
How we can move our toddler from sorting and classifying to counting
Did you know that moving from sorting and classifying can be a natural transition?
When working with your toddler on sorting objects by similarities or differences, encourage them to count the items in their collections. Give them the support they need to count up if they are struggling to do so. For example, ask your child, “I wonder how many round buttons we have in this container?”
Some ideas for setting up sorting activities for your toddlers
- Sorting by colour
- Sorting by quantity
- Shape
- Size
- Animals that live on land or animals that live in water etc.
An activity we did on sorting by quantity to practice the Math skill of one-to-one correspondence.
One of our activities was sorting cards by quantity.
The girls were expected to use a small stick as a pointer to count out all the circles on a given card and place the card in the corresponding container based on the number of circles.
The reason I chose this activity was because one of the skills we are working on for numeracy is one-to-one correspondence. The girls are able to count up and identify numbers from 1-20 in any order. But, from experience, one-to-one correspondence is an important beginning math skill for young children. It can take months for them to begin counting objects with one-to-one correspondence.
So it is important to provide our toddlers with plenty of opportunities to practice counting one-to-one whenever an opportunity presents itself.
This activity was created by using :
- Cardboard to make each card.
- Empty yogurt containers.
- Colour-coded stickers. (The circular stickers can also be replaced with any shape you are working on.)
- Markers for labeling the paper on the containers and to border the cards.
- Construction paper to cover the labels on the containers.
- Sticks so the girls could touch each sticker as they counted.
This activity also allowed the girls to review:
- Colours: As we selected a card, the girls identified the colour of the stickers they were counting.
- Shapes: The girls were able to identify the circles on the cards and expressed that the cards were rectangular in shape.
- Numbers: The girls were expected to count the amount of stickers on each card and place them in the correct container with the corresponding number.
Children who have the opportunity to work with activities associated with the concepts of simple sorting and classifying can develop understandings that allow them to organize the world around them. Through the use of simple sorting and classifying tasks, we help develop our children’s thinking in terms of grouping and regrouping which is important to learning.
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Kimberlee
I found this article to be incredibly valuable, as I am always looking for fun and educational activities for my toddler. Thank you for sharing and I will definitely be saving this article for future reference.