Thursday, October 20, 2011

Learning Activity: Sorting with colored erasers



Lately my almost 3 year old son has been restless and I'm trying to come up with some fun and maybe somewhat challenging activities to keep him busy!  I have seen lots of people using muffin tins so I found these dollar store colored erasers and decided to do a little sorting activity.  First we put one eraser in each cup.  Then I had him put 2 erasers in each cup.


Then I had him put 2 in each cup that were the same color.  I also had him put the same color in 3 cups in a row.  At the end I had him match up all the colors.  After that I let him do whatever he wanted.  Can you give me some more ideas?  He is very quick and bright and I want to give him more!  I like this activity because we learned about sorting, colors, counting, fine motor skills, reasoning and spacial concepts.

4 comments:

Amanda said...

Hmmm. You could try giving him a spoon or some tongs to put a Montessori twist on the activity (and work on the pencil grasp he'll need later). Have him spoon and transfer the erasers back and forth. Make ABAB patterns, practice putting them on unsharpened pencils...

You could also try a different medium like beans-- Jonathan's enjoyed pouring beans lately. It's nice and cheap fun for him!

kewkew said...

Love the suggestions above.
BTW, I love your use of the erasers.
Wanted to suggest maybe hiding the erasers in a tub of rice or beans or even shredded paper. Put numbers in the bottom of the muffin tin for him to actually match the number of erasers with the numeral or put construction paper circles of different colors for him to match to with the word written on it.

Shonda said...

Thanks for the great ideas!

Susan Case said...

These are all wonderful ideas - and fun too. Great thinking - love the hand-on.