Why Sorting? Why Matching?

Sorting comes very natural to human nature. When you see your baby smile or hear them cry, you respond to them and your baby soon knows what works to get the response they wish for. This process allows them to gain control of their environment and construct an understanding of how things are alike or different.

Classification, categorizing and organizing help us to make sense of the world - coming straight from a librarian's mouth that is. Sorting is one of the first, early skills that children will do without being taught, way before learning about numbers or the alphabet. You might have seen your little one putting blocks into different piles according to their colour, size or shape.

This week we had great fun with lots of activities around sorting and matching and met a few friends who helped us along the way. The session started with a couple of hello songs and we got to know each other a little bit more by singing the Name song (shark socks, dinosaur T-shirts - it's easy peasy to make friends when one is looking so fab). We then reflected back on last week's theme by going through our five senses. We popped some bubbles with 'Tiny Turtle Tim' then read what 'Brown bear, brown bear' saw. We had to stop at Black sheep as she was so good at sorting those bags of wool. But those 'Cows in the kitchen' were so mischievous when we sang about them, they needed a good sorting and by the end of the song we managed to chase them away.

We then had a good game by having our puppet friend, the postman visiting and helping us sort out some letters.

'Write, write, write your cards

Lots of letters, too

I will take them to your friends

And they will write to you'

A friendly police officer came by, too who stood by the traffic light and was pleased to see what great sorting the children have done with the play balls.

Whilst we were singing 'If you're happy and you know it' everybody was given some pictures of happy and sad babies that needed sorting into the matching envelopes. This was a good example of how teaching emotions through face sorting can encourage social and emotional development.

At our craft table this week, we had some pompoms and shapes that all children managed to get into the correct bowls. We also did a bit of practice with patterns on our caterpillar boards.

It seemed a great idea to read a story 'Wow said the owl' which was full of colours to spot. We then sang the 'Rainbow song' and ended our session with free play.

Matching, sorting and patterns are so versatile, yet simple activities. They are part of your child's everyday life and learning as they observe and compare objects around the house. So why not use this concept at doing your chores, snack time or play and include in your daily routine?

#sorting #matching #colours #patterns #alike #different