5 Activities for Children Who Like to Sort

If you have a toddler, I'm sure you've seen them arrange their stuffies in a row or put their cars into groups based on different size/colour/type.

To Dr. Montessori, the reason for this is obvious...

Young children are in their sensitive period for order (click here to read about Montessori's Sensitive Periods) and sorting or categorizing toys and objects is one way to create order. 

Sorting allows young children to exercise control over their environment, boosting their confidence and independence. 

It also helps children make sense of the world by identifying similarities and differences.  

You can support this period of development by offering a variety of sorting activities.

5 Activities for Children Who Like to Sort

1. Sort by Colour

Offer a bin or basket of coloured balls, blocks or other toys and then containers to sort them into.

For very young toddlers who are still learning to identify colours, it may be helpful to have containers the same colour as the toys, i.e. sorting red blocks into a red bowl, blue blocks into a blue bowl, etc.

If you don’t have coloured containers, you could also use construction paper, just cut out a piece and tape it to the bottom of the colourless container or use coloured dot stickers.

Start with 2 or 3 containers and then add more as your child becomes familiar with more colours. 

For older toddlers, you could use an empty ice cube tray, tongs and a bowl of pom poms to sort by colour.

You can also check out these printables that incorporate sorting by colour:

• Sorting cars by Colours
• Heart Matching Colours

2. Sorting by Size

You can sort:

• socks (sorting children’s socks vs. adult’s socks)
• pom poms (small vs. large)
• objects found in nature (small rocks vs. larger rocks, small leaves vs. large leaves, small pine cones vs. large pine cones, etc.)
• spoons (small spoons vs. large spoons)
• buttons

This activity can be integrated into daily life by sorting clean laundry. Invite your child to sort their clothes and yours, based on size.  

You can also check out these printables that incorporate sorting by size:

• Sorting by Size - Small, Medium & Large
• Sorting Butterflies - Small, Medium & Large
• Sorting Beach Items by Size - Small, Medium & Large

3. Sorting by Category or Classification

Classification activities are excellent for toddlers because they learn how to group objects that have similar characteristics or functions.  

You can do this with toys or objects you have around the home from different rooms.

Toys: Animals, vehicles, blocks, balls, etc.
Areas of the Home: Objects found in the kitchen, objects found in the bathroom, etc.

You can also check out these printables that incorporate sorting by category:

• Sorting animals by type
• Sorting items by seasons
• Sorting images by preposition (under, next to, in front of, etcz)
• Sorting Bees versus other insects
• What goes together

4. Sorting by Letter Sounds

For children 3 years+ who are showing an interest in letter sounds and are familiar with letter symbols, i.e. T makes a t-t-t sound, S makes a s-s-s sound.  

Gather different objects around the home that start with the letters you’ve chosen (start with letters that are meaningful to your child, like the first letter of their name, M for Mom, D for Dad, etc.)  Sort the objects based on the sound/letter they start with.  

You can also DIY this classroom material with our Printable Movable Alphabet - Felt Movable Alphabet with Small Objects

5. Sorting by 2D or 3D Shape

The simpler version of this activity is to cut out different 2D shapes (start with the basics: circle, triangle and square) and sort them.

For a challenge, you could do use this printable with 3D geometric solids and cards of objects that are the same geometric shape. 

You could also use objects found around the house for a more hands-on activity and put them in a basket to sort by 3D shape.