Today we read the book, I Can Eat a Rainbow by Olena Rose, is a book that explores how it is important to incorporate fruits and vegetables into their diet. The bright and colorful book is complete with a rainbow of foods which ignited us to set up an invitation to sort our pretend food at school!
We provided mixed up trays full of pretend food and #gifted rainbow translucent buckets on our tuff tray. The children were invited to sort the food by color, into the bucket that matched.
Since children have a natural desire to make sense of their world, to create order, sorting attracts and engages children. Many children will start sorting things without even being taught. Sorting is a beginning math skill. It may seem that a big chunk of early math is about learning numbers and quantity, but there's much more to it. By sorting, children understand that things are alike and different as well as that they can belong and be organized into certain groups. Getting practice with sorting at an early age is important for numerical concepts and grouping numbers and sets when they're older. This type of thinking starts them on the path of applying logical thinking to objects, mathematical concepts and everyday life in general.
While this invitation focuses on sorting colors, through exploring the food, it can also be a way to build their language, differentiate and learn about new food groups, communicate to collaborate, and so much more all through play!
Comments