Sorting Activities for Your Toddler

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Did you know that sorting things lays the foundations for mathematics for kids?! Well, now I do! Every time I turn around my son is sorting the things he’s playing with. Pieces of the marble track are in piles by color, the toys are sorted into cars and stuffed animals. Little piles and caches of his treasures, sorted out.

Start with the basics

Remember the song, “One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn’t belong. Can you name which thing is not like the others, before I end this song?”

Identifying the outlier is a building block for sorting things. Sorting by color, by shape, by type, comes as they recognize there are differences.

Encourage the sorting instinct and help them build basic math skills. And maybe get a little independent play time in the process!

Things to Sort

Look around your house and you’ll find a million things for sorting to entertain and teach your toddler.

• Stickers Basic colored dots can be sorted by color, or you can get animal stickers and sort out the dogs onto one page, the cats onto another, etc.
• Blocks Depending on the blocks you have, you can sort by color or size or shape. Build towers based on the sorted out pieces.
• Candy Have a treat while you’re at it! M&M’s or Skittles are yummy and easy to sort!
• Buttons They come in every shape, size and color! Lots of options for sorting.
• Pasta I love pasta because it comes in a million different shapes! Buy spinach or tomato pasta, or dye your pasta for color fun too!
• Cars Which ones hold lots of people, or just a few people? Which ones work and build things, or drive people to school and work?
• Animal Toys Sort the farm animals from the zoo animals, or find all the animals that live in the water or live on land.
• Foam Letters We sort these by letter and practice our alphabet as we go, or sometimes we sort by color.
• Magnets Alphabet, animals, numbers, whatever you’ve got!
• Bath Toys Whether it’s the letters that stick to the wall or the floating animals in bright colors, these provide many options for sorting.
• Post-it’s My son is constantly in my office, and office supplies are a favorite. Get the flag kind and ask them to find all the toys that drive with blue. Then see if they can mark all the blocks with orange. And all the animals with green. You get the idea.
• Crayons Or any of the fun, colorful art supplies.
• Food Cereal or any snack. Used mixed vegetables and have them sort the peas, carrots, and corn out. Maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll eat some veggies while they play!
• Pom Poms Or pipe cleaners or other fun tactile objects.
• Balls Maybe it’s because I’ve got two little boys, but we’ve got balls everywhere! Ball Pit balls are fun because they’re colorful and light
• Holiday Themes Easter Eggs, Christmas Ornaments, Halloween Candy
• Outdoors While you’re working in the garden, have them put rocks in one container, leaves in another, etc.
• Liquids Add coloring for more fun!

But finding things TO sort is just the beginning. HOW to sort them is fun too! Sort them in different ways to add excitement and complexity to the job!

Ways to Sort

• Paper Place different colored papers on the ground and have your child sort a bowl of colored pom poms onto the correct coordinating papers. Or tape different papers to the wall and sort stickers on to the pages.
• Take N Toss Cups If you don’t have these, you need them. They’re colorful and perfect for sorting and the perfect size for snacks on the go.
• Plastic/Paper Cups Instead of the snack cups, disposable cups will do the trick as well!
• Muffin Tins Have your child sort buttons by shape into compartments of the tin.
• Dollar Store Bins Isn’t the dollar store great? They have all kinds of cheap bins in different colors, shapes, and sizes. Or even holiday-themed containers!
• Tongs Picking up objects with tongs practices some motor skills and adds a bit of difficulty when tasks have gotten easy.
• Hand Strainer or Ladle Put some bath toys into a bin of water and your child can fish them out into appropriate bowls with a strainer.
• Spatula Picking things like blocks or uncooked pasta with a spatula is fun and an easy distraction while your cooking. Dye some pasta and keep it handy for when you need to cook dinner, hand them some bowls and a spatula and ask them to sort it out.
• Pipettes What kid doesn’t love playing with liquids?! Put a dot of different colors of food coloring in the bottom of several bowls and have your child add water with the pipettes and discover the colors! Then they can transfer the colors to another set of colored cups.
• Practice Counting Label a cup with a number and have your child put that many of something inside the cup.
• Practice Alphabet Label a cup with a letter and have your child put things that begin with that letter in the cup.