Kara is Sorting Buttons by Length

Sorting and classifying buttons is fun!

Out of all the objects to ask kids to sort, I think buttons are the best to begin with.  Not merely are they so many different shapes and colors and textures and design, they are easy to come by and often let the user to reminisce well-nigh the places these buttons came from, or their sweet grandma, perchance, who gifted these buttons.

Sorting teaches kids many neat skills.  In add-on to logic, thinking, visual and mathematical skills, it also brings about attention to item and conclusion making, color recognition, texture differences, and responsiveness.  Another thing it will practice is showcase a kid’due south personality and preferences.  If y’all put whatsoever three kids at the aforementioned table with the aforementioned pile of buttons, yous will find many different ways to sort the same exact objects.

Wouldn’t that be a fun experiment?

On this particular solar day, I gave a moderate pile of buttons to my first form gal.  I did non give her whatever instructions.  I told her to merely “play” with them for five minutes.

So she did.  She ooh-ed and aah-ed over many of the different colors, shapes, and textures.  Some were shiny, some were boring.  Some were raised and others were concave. Still others were convex.  Some were shaped like a torpedo.  One was shaped like an artichoke (her words, not mine. :o)  and there were several glorious, glorious colors represented.

Her first reaction was to create shapes using the buttons.  She was very choosey as to which buttons she chose.  She did not apply them all.  She’s definitely my perfectionist, less-is-more daughter.  She fabricated a cross, a alphabetic character “a”, and then was on to creating different shapes.

A fourth dimension of exploration is essential.

Later on that, I simply asked her some questions regarding the beautiful pile of buttons.

“What practice you notice?”

“They all have different designs,” she said.  “Only not all of them take designs.  Lots of different colors. Some have 2 holes.  Some accept four.  Not all of them have holes.

“Is that it?”  I asked

“Yep.” she said.

I prodded some more.  “What exercise you notice near the shapes of the buttons?”

“Oh!  Um…some are apartment, round, foursquare, oval…well, not any of these are oval.  Merely I know oval buttons exist.”

I reminded her to only find the buttons in front end of her.

“This one is shaped similar a cylinder.  This one looks….(she frowns)…similar an artichoke!”

We laugh.  It is delightful to find something familiar in this pile of buttons.

I enquire another question:

“Exercise they all attach to a shirt the same mode?”

To this she responds, “No.  Some have flat tops with a clip behind and so y’all tin adhere it to the shirt from behind.”

Now I set up her free and asked her to sort the buttons any way she chose to.

This is what she came up with (color):

Then, I asked her to find another way to sort them.  She chose to sort them into three piles: No holes.  Two holes.  iv holes.

Other ways could accept been texture, means of attaching, shapes, to proper name a few.

Sorting is a fun mode to encourage critical thinking!  Endeavour these other ideas with kids of other ages:

Sorting ideas for the very beginner (preschool-1000): crayons, play dough piles, silverware, etc. Sorting will be very simple and will likely involve 2 groups of colors or shapes.

Sorting ideas for grades 1-2: buttons, fruits, vegetables, food (placed in food pyramid), toy collections, etc.  These sorting activities will normally involve visual aspects and common uses and will involve at to the lowest degree 3 different groups, but ideally 5 or so.

Sorting ideas for the older student (grades iii+): kitchen utensils; office supplies, hardware, different types of screws and nails, levers and pulleys, geometric shapes etc.  Sorting activities for the older student volition usually involve sorting for the ways the item tin can be used, visual and mechanical aspects, how they do good everyday life, how they bear upon the world effectually them, etc.   The number of groups sorted is not as important equally the depth of thinking involved.