Sorting Activity

So I have been doing some pinteresting (http://www.pinterest.com/ if you haven’t tried this- do!) and have come across loads of amazing kid/toddler activities. A lot of sorting activities.

So thought I’d add one we did last week that was fun and kept LM busy for 45mins of so- which for a 2.5 year old is no mean feat.

You will need:

Cardboard tubes- we used an empty tin foil tube, an empty wrapping paper tube and an empty kitchen paper tube and a large poster tube. So 4 different diameter tubes. That’s the key with this activity, different diameter tubes.

• Toys- we used LM’s Zoo box- he has a load of animals of different sizes and brands. Also includes a zoo keeper and a family who regularly go to the zoo. But cars/ Lego/ or other small toys.



• 5 areas for sorting

So now LM just had to sort the animals by which fit where. By trying to slide them through the tubes.

Was good fun and good for discussing body parts of animals- as in reindeer's antlers won’t fit through, or donkeys ears are too long to fit, or giraffes neck is too long, so won’t fit. So obviously if the animal won’t fit in the smallest tube we try next size up and so on. And if it won’t fit in any tube, it is put in a separate area for large or tall animals.

Also good for developing fine motor skills/ dexterity*, learning animals names, body part names, animal specific body parts (hooves, paws, tail, horns, tusks, strikes, spots, snout, etc), descriptive language (small, large, tight, long, short, tall, etc), colours, and many more depending how complicated the game.

Anyone else got good sorting game ideas?

* Fine motor skills are the coordination of small muscle movements which occur e.g., in the fingers, usually in coordination with the eyes. In application to motor skills of hands (and fingers) the term dexterity is commonly used. When applied to the theory of human aptitude this is called manual dexterity.