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Sorting between big and small

February 22, 2014 by Kate 13 Comments

Sorting sizes - toddler activity

Toddlers love being given simple little roles of responsibility and it gives them a great sense of achievement when they complete a given task. That is why I thought I’d tap into that and have Possum (2.2 years) engage in a simple activity that would have her sorting between big and small objects. Great activity to help her understand more about size and how they can be described.

Colourful pom poms

For this sorting activity you will need –

  • 2 x bowls (one big and one small)
  • objects of two sizes (I’ve used pom poms)
  • tongs (optional)

Talking about which bowl is bigger

Different sized bowls

I decided to present Possum with two bowls that were different sizes. I did this on purpose as I wanted to provide her with the following instructions

“Place the big pom poms in the big bowl and the small pom poms in the small bowl“.

Asking her to separate the  pom poms between equally sized bowls wasn’t going to be a strong enough visual cue to indicate which pom pom should be placed in what bowl. Changing their sizes would further support her learning of big and small.

Toddler activity sorting big and small pom poms

 Sorting and describing 

Possum took no time to begin separating the pom poms. I also encouraged her to use describing words, ‘big’ when sorting the larger pom poms and ‘small’ or ‘little’ for those that were considerably smaller.

Sorting different sizes

Less is best

It’s a very good idea not to provide your little one with too many things to sort. Once Possum was able to sort a small handful of pom poms I decided to give her all the pom poms I had. This backfired as the overwhelming though of her needing to sort them saw her just grab huge handfuls without separating them. The less she was offered the better she completed the task. 

Toddler checking for mistakes

Checking and correcting

I think it’s always a good idea to give children an opportunity to reflect on what they have done and see if there is something they’d like to change. When Possum went about grabbing handfuls of pom poms, I turned it into a learning opportunity by asking her to check each bowl and remove any that didn’t belong.

Toddler using tongs in fine motor activity

 Fine Motor Skills

This type of activity can simply be turned into a fine motor activity by introducing tongs!

Comparing big and small pom poms

 Learning Achieved

This is such a simple activity to set up at home and by keeping it basic, a higher level of learning can be achieved. Of course, you don’t have to use pom poms. You might like to use buttons and coins, foil and paper or peas and corn, which your child can sort!

When sorting between big and small objects you are teaching your child basic mathematical concepts. Specifically, they are learning about size, their descriptive names and how things can be compared. Of course, including the tongs will also help  develop the small fine motor muscles in their hands.

Do you think your child would like this type of activity? 

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Filed Under: 1 - 3 years, featured, Fine Motor, Uncategorized Tagged With: maths, sorting, toddler

Comments

  1. Finn says

    March 3, 2014 at 8:39 am

    Why didn’t I think of this before?! Will definitely do this tomorrow, oh yes, I will! Thanks for sharing this!

    Reply
    • Kate says

      March 3, 2014 at 11:40 pm

      It’s funny how we can forget to do the simplest of steps when teaching our children. Hope this is a successful activity for your little one.

      Reply
  2. Jaime says

    August 27, 2015 at 12:52 pm

    Great post kate! Thanks for the great ideas! Jaime Spencer

    Reply
    • Kate says

      August 27, 2015 at 1:03 pm

      You are very welcome Jaime! It’s amazing how simple play ideas can be but wonderful to see what children get out of them. Thank you kindly for commenting. 🙂

      Reply

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Welcome
Hello and welcome!
My name is Kate and I am a mum to two little girls, Possum and Boo. We have lots of fun together learning with play at home and are pleased to share some of what we do with you.
Read my about page to find out more.

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