Sorting and Classifying

Here’s an easy game for preschoolers through elementary age, and you can use it to cover multiple learning objectives at one time! For a busy homeschooling mom, that’s an important thing!

We sorted items from around the house. I looked for a variety of shapes and materials, some toys and some not.

We sorted by color:

And by toys and tools:

We also sorted by what the objects were made out of (plastic, metal, etc.) and by whether the dog had chewed it or not (that was my favorite!). Other ways to sort: by shape, natural and man-made (include some leaves and rocks), by who owns it, by whether it floats or sinks.

Here’s how we applied this lesson:

Owen’s learning objective (age 22 months): Don’t put the objects in your mouth. Food goes in your mouth. Nothing else. Not toys, not crayons, not keys…

Gresham’s learning objective (age 4): Organizing and sorting. Identifying differences and similarities in appearance, use, etc.

Aidan’s learning objective (age 7): We applied what we did with organizing the items to how scientists classify animals. We are learning about insects, and scientists disagree on how some insects are classified. We saw that there are a lot of ways to approach sorting things into groups.

Everyone learned something! Hooray!