What you'll need:

Muffin Tin
Colored felt or paper
Scissors
Tongs/Tweezers
Pencil/Crayons & Paper (optional)

Getting Started:

Sorting capitalizes on a child's natural desire to make sense of their world while building fundamental math skills through comparing and contrasting objects. The act of sorting helps children understand grouping, and that things can be similar or dissimilar.

To get started trace the bottom of a muffin tin onto several different colors of paper or felt. Cut out each circle and place one color in each tin. With your remaining paper or felt, cut out squares or various shapes to be sorted.

Place the shapes (mixed together) in a separate bowl or empty muffin tin.

You are now ready to walk your child through the act of sorting the colors into the tins (with fingers or tweezers depending on ability). Depending on your child's age and ability, below are a few ways this activity can be done. Older children can often handle three of four categories of sorting, while younger children may be better to start with one or two.

   Sort by color – practice color recognition
   Sort by number – practice counting and number awareness
   Sort by shape – practice shape and color recognition
   Sort by color and number

   For added challenge:

• Ask your child to write down the number of objects in each tin (number recognition)
• Ask your child to place a particular number of colored objects of each tin (counting)
• Ask your child to write the number of objects in the tin, using the same color pen/pencil/crayon as the tin (number and color recognition)
• Ask your child to write out the number and color of each tin (spelling practice)
• Ask the child to add (or subtract) tins (early math)

Additional Sorting Tools:
Learning Resources Super Sorting Pie
Learning Resources Mini Muffin Match Up
Counting Bears with Cups

What it teaches:

Early Math Concepts
Logical & Critical Thinking
Number & Color Recognition
Fine Motor Skills