I have mentioned many times before that my Sammy is quite the collector.  Whenever we go for a walk he always finds “treasures” that must be taken with us.  I understand his Daddy was the same way as a wee one (and certainly does a lot of encouraging!) Benjamin seems to have also gotten the ‘collectors gene’!

Our nature walks are now always full of collecting treasures.  So I have been finding creative things to do with all of these wonderful things my wee ones find.  Sorting these collections is something we do often, so I thought I would share one of Sammy’s favourite sorting math games.  This math game is similar to our Graphing with Nature Math Game.

First of all, I drew a Venn Diagram out of chalk.  These can be done on paper, with hulahoops, or on the ground with tape.  We used Venn Diagrams all the time in Kindergarten – it’s a great organizer for wee ones.  A Venn Diagram is 2 big circles that overlap in the middle.  One circle is for one type of item (like red things) the other circle is for a second type of item (like yellow things) and the overlapping part in the middle is for items that are both (have yellow and red).

We did 2 sorting math games with these Venn Diagrams.

First we sorted Leaves by colour (in fact, exactly as I described above).  We sorted red and yellow leaves.  The middle part of the diagram had leaves that were both red and yellow.  When we stumbled upon a brown leaf Sammy was puzzled.  Where should it go?  He picked up the chalk and drew a third circle, placing the brown leaf inside – what a problem solver (he gets that from me … the collecting from Daddy, but the intelligent problem solver – me) 🙂

Next, we sorted things by touch.  Soft things in one circle (by soft we meant bendable), hard things in the other circle.  Leaves were all deemed soft, rocks, acorns, and some sticks were hard, and tree bark and a few ‘bendy’ sticks were put in the middle. This, coincidentally, turned out to be a good problem solving activity too.

These math games were a great way to stretch Sammy’s thinking and help him build some different connections to items.  When he usually sorts, he sorts all leaves, all sticks, and so on.  This was a neat way to get him thinking about different ways to sort.

And now, I am afraid, I may have given him even more reason to collect!  Well, at least I can rest knowing he was going to collect anyways, it is in his DNA.

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