Make a giant color graph, and sort, count, and graph toys or other objects!

I’ve mentioned before that Jonathan (turning 4 in January) is always asking for more “school” to do.  But like my other boys, he doesn’t always see the value in academic activities.  For example, I have seen the idea on Pinterest to tape a small piece of paper with a number on it to a pipe cleaner, and then have your child string that number of beads onto the pipe cleaner.  I thought it was a great idea!  However, my preschoolers have typically not had much desire to do that sort of activity correctly.  This color graphing activity was a big hit!  We were able to get in lots of counting practice and conversations about more and less and which group was the greatest.  And, it kept him busy for quite awhile, which is always a good thing.

Sorting, Counting, and Graphing for Preschoolers

The set up for this activity was super simple.  I used a sheet of poster board to make a giant color graph.  Then I set out our huge bucket of Hot Wheels cars!

Sorting, Counting, and Graphing for Preschoolers

Jonathan got right to work.  I thought it was interesting that his approach was to do all of one color first before moving on to the next color.

Sorting, Counting, and Graphing for Preschoolers

Whew!  All the cars!  Well, all the ones that aren’t currently in our Wooden Crate Parking Garage or lost under the couch or under someone’s bed or put away in the wrong box…

Sorting, Counting, and Graphing for Preschoolers

After sorting and graphing all the cars (and seeing that red won with 17 cars), we wondered what else we could sort and graph.  Gresham brought down his enormous Safari Toob animal collection and let Jonathan graph those!

Sorting, Counting, and Graphing for Preschoolers

Gresham directed this part of the activity.  He is such a natural born teacher.  It will be interesting to see where this skill takes him in the future.

After lunch, we decided to go on a walk to see what things we could find outdoors to put on our color graph.  We have a creek behind our house with plenty of land to explore.

Sorting, Counting, and Graphing for Preschoolers

We didn’t find anything orange or blue, and our red was a bit of a stretch, but we found some beautiful purple thistles and plenty of other fun treasures.  We also saw a large black snake with a yellow belly (EEK!!) but we did not graph that!

What will we graph next?  Here are more ideas for graphing:

  • Crayons/markers/colored pencils
  • M&M’s (see what color is the greatest in number from your package)
  • Legos
  • School supplies
  • Building blocks

Sorting, Counting, and Graphing for Preschoolers

7 Comments

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  1. JJ Oct 29, 2015

    Another great idea to "borrow" from you to use with my 3 1/2 year old. Yay!

    I have to tell you that I have had quite a bit of trouble with your blog lately. I think maybe it's the video ad in your sidebar. I have to "stop script" over and over to get to read a post. I hope this is something that can be fixed as I enjoy visiting your blog.

    Reply
    1. Sarah Oct 30, 2015

      Thanks so much for letting me know about the ad! I will contact my ad network and see what they can do.

      Reply
  2. Grandma Baba Oct 31, 2015

    I can't wait to do this with the grandson. He is all about cars and trucks and I'm sure this project will appeal to him! Thanks for the great ideas.

    Reply
  3. Nicola Petty Feb 9, 2016

    These are great. I am currently making a video about graphs, and would love to use one of your pictures. Can you email me if that is ok?

    Reply
  4. Amy Jan 4, 2017

    What a fun idea! Love the twist on sorting... thanks for the post!

    Reply
  5. Kathrin Feb 22, 2017

    What a great idea. I want to do that with my daughter. But as we don't have many cars I had trouble coming up with little things to use. So thanks for the ideas at the very end. Crayons will definitly do. And maybe my daughter can help me find some other stuff.

    Reply
  6. Yittie Mar 16, 2020

    More amazing ideas! thank you!

    Reply
  7. Marilyn Apr 20, 2020

    Wow Thank you for these great ideas. Super cool.

    Reply

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