Talking together about their reasoning for sorting and matching decisions helps children learn from each other.

Did you know?

Matching and sorting games at playgroup can be good for getting children to explore similarities and differences together. Children can learn from each other and reason through how and why things go together.

Add language

Talk about how things are the same and how things are different and use category labels while the children are engaged in sorting and matching tasks.

Ask occasional questions like “How are they different?” or “How are they the same?”

Other development

Sorting and matching games are useful for developing visual perceptual skills and learning concepts of colour, size, shape, number, and categorisation important for developing literacy and numeracy skills.

Variations

Pack away time can be turned into a sorting game by having children pack away things into tubs by category e.g. vehicles in the red tub, animals in the green tub, blocks in the blue tub etc.

Sorting pictures from junk mail or magazines into categories and then making them into picture books is a great group activity at playgroup e.g. food, drinks, furniture, clothing, toys, books, tools, vehicles etc.

Safety

Keep small objects or things with small parts away from babies and toddlers who may choke on them.

Across the ages

All the activities listed on our “Play Ideas” page can be applied across different age groups. Check out sorting games for babies, toddlers and children.

 

Activities listed under “playgroup” are suitable for groups of children of various ages. They provide opportunities for early learning and social play.

Play ideas