Materials
10 to 20 different objects, including blocks, toys, play foods or empty food containers, writing implements (chalk, pencils, markers, crayons), and so on
Instructions
1. Without telling the children, choose one characteristic that is the same for some of the items. For example, if some are made of wood, and some are plush, sort the items by those characteristics. You could also sort them by use if some are play-food items and some are writing implements, or you could sort by color if some are red and some are blue.
2. Put all the items together that have the same characteristic. Invite the children to figure out your rule for sorting them.
3. Find another way to group these items. Let them figure this one out.
4. Let the children take turns sorting the items, with the rest of the group working on the rule. Find as many different ways to group the items as you can. Ask the children to find more items with the same characteristics from their surroundings to place in one of the groups.
5. Put everything away, and ask the children to collect a new group of items to sort.
