Sorting Children

Early Years (Age 3 – 6)

Curriculum Goal

Kindergarten: Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviour

Collect, organize, display, and interpret data to solve problems and to communicate information, and explore the concept of probability in everyday contexts (#19).

Context

Students begin by standing in the middle of the carpet. The teacher stands facing them.

Materials

No materials needed.

Lesson

Explain to students that you will be dividing them into two groups, based on 1 characteristic that is the same in each group.
Divide students into the groups and then ask if anyone has an idea on what that characteristic may be.
Have students give their ideas. As students do this, ask them to check and verify that their statement is true (e.g. if a child says everyone on this side is wearing pink, ask the whole class to check to make sure).
Once students have guessed what characteristic you have sorted them by, sort them again based on a different one.
With the help of the teacher, have students take turns sorting other students based on one characteristic.

Look Fors

Can children come up with sort characteristics that make sense?
Do children understand what it means to sort by one characteristic?
Can children identify what the sorting characteristic is?

Related Lessons

Organize and interpret data using two different styles of graphs.

Sort and organize Smarties based on their characteristics.

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