Montessori-Inspired Sorting Activities

Last night, we had an impromptu homeschooling session. I was working with A (almost 2 years old) when K (4 years old) walked in, so I immediately adjusted the lesson to use with two children.
These activities can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. 

Montessori-Inspired Activity #1: Dinosaur Sort
These are materials from the dollar store, so I spent a total of US$3.

Materials needed:
- a mat or small rug or even a towel (no need to buy, just find one that you have in your house)
- a muffin tin (or two)
- a bag with a variety of plastic dinosaurs

How to:
- Place a mat, rug or towel in front of child.
- Put the muffin tin(s) and the dinosaurs on the mat.
- Pick six dinosaurs that are different and put one in each muffin tin space.
- Go through the rest of the dinosaur pile and find those that match with the ones in the muffin tin spaces.
- When done, return all dinosaurs back to the pile and repeat with different dinosaurs.

We had so much fun making different varieties of groups to sort.

Montessori-Inspired Sorting Activity #2: Seashell Sort
These shells were also purchased at the dollar store (it is amazing what treasures these stores can have).

Materials needed:
- a mat or small rug or even a towel (no need to buy, just find one that you have in your house)
- a muffin tin (or two)
- a bag with a variety of seashells

How to:
- Place a mat, rug or towel in front of child.
- Put the muffin tin(s) and the seashells on the mat.
- Pick six shells that are different and put one in each muffin tin space.
- Go through the rest of the seashell pile and find those that match with the ones in the muffin tin spaces.
- When done, return all seashells back to the pile and repeat with different dinosaurs.

Other Montessori-Inspired Sorting Ideas
Use:
- giants beads (see picture below) to sort by color, size or shape
- glass beads in different shapes, sizes and/or colors (from the dollar store)
- pompoms in different sizes and/or colors
- mini erasers in different shapes (see picture below, also from the dollar store)
- mixed nuts tin
- colored pasta (in different shapes and colors)
- Legos
- marbles
- grapes in different colors
- Chex mix
- different kinds of cereals, mixed

Note: Never leave children unattended, no matter the age, because some of these pose choking hazards.

Here are a few other cool sorting trays. The mini muffin pan is a disposable one that I kept to use in our homeschool room and the elephant tray was a great find at a local thrift store. It cost only $1!