Menu

  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About
    • Developmental Domains of Early Childhood
      • Language Development
      • Cognitive Development
      • Motor Development
      • Social/Emotional Development
      • Self-Help/Adaptive Development
      • Spiritual and Moral Development
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclosure/Disclaimer
    • Terms of Use
  • Thematic Units
  • Concepts
    • Alphabet
    • Number Recognition
    • Color Activities For Toddlers
    • Shapes
    • Reading
    • Science Experiments
    • Sunday School Activities
  • Holidays
    • Christmas
    • Easter
    • Fourth of July
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Valentine’s Day
  • For Parents
    • Gifts
    • DIY Ideas
    • Recipes
    • Photography Tips
    • A Lesson Learned
    • Tools
      • Infant Percentile Calculator
      • Children’s Percentile Calculator
      • Children’s BMI Calculator
  • Shop

I Can Teach My Child!

Activities and resources for parents of young children

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Blog
  • Birth-12 Months
  • Fun Activities For 1 to 2 Years Old
  • Home
  • 2-3 Years
  • 3-5 Years
  • 6+ Years

June 28, 2012 by Jenae - 2 Comments
This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy.

Simple Sorting for Young Toddlers

Guest Post by Mariette of Mariette’s Meanderings

Toddlers learn so much from just living and playing! If your toddler is anything like mine, they also like simple tasks and activities that they can feel successful at accomplishing. Aside from puzzles, shape sorters, and stacking rings, here are some of our favorites! When we have had a stretch of time at home, I often quickly pull together an activity to engage Little Roo that happens to introduce her to a learning concept or skill. Most of these activities were thrown together from items around the house (even better, in my opinion!).
Basic Color Sorting  Our first color sorting activity, I took shapes from a shape sorter and corresponding colors of cardstock and showed Roo how to make matches. We use stacking cups and pom-poms for a similar activity.
she often puts it in the incorrect spot first and says, “no!”

 

“yes!”

 

so proud!

 

Freight Train Cut and Match  I had made felt train cars inspired by Donald Crew’s book Freight Train. There was a stack of magazines about to go in the recycling bin. I decided to cut out vibrant colored objects from the magazines and have Roo place them in the train car of the same color. Older children, who have experience with scissors, can help find and cut the pictures themselves.

Buttons or Pom-Poms and an Egg Carton  Roo opened a drawer of scrapbooking supplies and pulled out a small container of buttons. I rummaged around to find an empty egg carton. I let her explore on her own, and wouldn’t you know? She placed one button in each opening! How’s that for one-to-one correspondence?! You can also put colors or numbers at the bottom of each egg holder and have your child sort colored buttons or pom-poms or when they are older count and place the corresponding amount in each spot. (Make sure your child is no longer placing items in their mouth if you are going to use buttons or pom-poms or just watch them very closely!)
Animal and Book Matching  I noticed that the set of little plastic animals we own coordinates with some of Little Roo’s chunky animal books. We match them, placing the animal on top of the book. This is a perfect activity to throw in the diaper bag, we pull it out while waiting at a restaurant or doctor’s office (5 small books and 5 plastic animals have a lot of playing potential and since the books are small they aren’t too cumbersome!). We also find other animals in books to match with animal toys. If you don’t happen to have books that match, you can print photos to match with any of your animal toys.
Roo (now 20 months) loves to complete these tasks. What toddler doesn’t like to clap for themselves?? She learns so quickly and amazes me everyday by how much she has learned and changed in her short 20 months of living! I look forward to spending more time with her and finding teachable moments in her every day play!
Mariette is a former teacher, now stay-at-home mom to a little girl who is now 20 months old. She enjoys applying what she knows about how young children grow and learn to her daughter’s every day life! You can find her over at MariettesMeanderings.blogspot.com.

Related Posts

  • Sorting Toys by Color Activity for Toddlers
    Sorting Toys by Color Activity for Toddlers

      It's Day 12 of our 31 Days of Indoor Fun for Toddlers! We did…

  • Printable Cereal Sorting Mat
    Printable Cereal Sorting Mat

      Today is Day 15 of our 31 Days of Indoor Fun for Toddlers series…

  • Toddler Time: Simple Color Sorting

    We've been casually working on our colors with Little Brother. Right now everything is "yellow".…

  • Pom Pom Drop- Keeping Toddlers Busy

    Guest Post by Nicolette of Powerful Mothering. My 18 month old's new obsession is to drag one…

  • Clip the Color Activity for Toddlers

     I have just about every "subset" of young children:  a school-aged child, a preschooler, and…

  • Word Post-Its: A Simple Activity for Young Readers

    Guest Post from Rachel of Thriving Home Do you have a post-it pad and pen?…

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kristina says

    June 29, 2012 at 11:25 am

    Thanks for all the ideas! They are great!

    Here is a post from my blog about color sorting.

    http://carterclan2006.blogspot.com/2012/06/color-circles.html

    Reply
  2. Petra says

    June 29, 2012 at 11:32 am

    Wonderful idea, inspirational to explore with babies but also gives a lot of ideas to use with older ones, combined with other learning topics. Thanks for this.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You Might Also Love

Christmas Trees for Toddlers
Christmas Trees for Toddlers
Categories: 1-2 Years, Christmas
Process Art Ornament for Toddlers
Categories: 1-2 Years, Christmas, Toddler Time
What is a Homeschool Co-Op?
Categories: Guest Post

Primary Sidebar

Kindergarten Readiness Teach Your Child to Read ABC Printable Scripture Cards Indoor Toddler Activiites

Looking for something specific?

Footer

Note on Copyright

Feel free to use ideas at your home, school or anywhere else you learn and play. If you wish to share any posts or photographs from this site on your blog or website, please make sure to abide by the following copyright guidelines: -Use Only 1 Photo -Maximum of 1-2 sentence description -Include a link to the ORIGINAL post Please do not repost/duplicate more than 1-2 sentences of the tutorial or distribute printed content without written permission from the original author. Please do not use ANY of the photographs on this website on Instagram.
Privacy
© 2021 I Can Teach My Child, LLC. All Rights Reserved. · Site Design and Hosting by SERVOUSLY
The owner and writer of this blog accepts no liability. Readers following instructions and suggestions made by the owner and writers are responsible for their own safety and the safety of minors in their care. All activities require adult supervision at all times. Children under 3 should not participate in any activities that involve small pieces.
Back to Top
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

  • About
    ▼
    • Developmental Domains of Early Childhood
      ▼
      • Language Development
      • Cognitive Development
      • Motor Development
      • Social/Emotional Development
      • Self-Help/Adaptive Development
      • Spiritual and Moral Development
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclosure/Disclaimer
    • Terms of Use
  • Thematic Units
  • Concepts
    ▼
    • Alphabet
    • Number Recognition
    • Color Activities For Toddlers
    • Shapes
    • Reading
    • Science Experiments
    • Sunday School Activities
  • Holidays
    ▼
    • Christmas
    • Easter
    • Fourth of July
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Valentine’s Day
  • For Parents
    ▼
    • Gifts
    • DIY Ideas
    • Recipes
    • Photography Tips
    • A Lesson Learned
    • Tools
      ▼
      • Infant Percentile Calculator
      • Children’s Percentile Calculator
      • Children’s BMI Calculator
  • Shop
  • Birth-12 Months
  • 1 – 2 Years
  • 2-3 Years
  • 3-5 Years
  • 6+ Years
  • Blog