Sorting by Size – Big and Small

When my daughter was around 20 months old we started working more intentionally on the concepts of big and small. I used this simple DIY sorting activity to introduce the concepts formally to her and give her a chance to practice. 

To help A focus solely on sorting by size and not get distracted by other characteristics, I used pairs of identical sea creatures (one big, one small). I made two bases out of cardboard – one small and one big – for an extra visual cue, and modeled placing one pair of animals side by side and then deciding which one was small and which one was big.

Sorting activities such as this one teach a child basic mathematical concepts, in this case about size, the vocabulary used to describe it and how two objects can be compared and categorized. This type of activity also helps build visual perception and logical thinking skills, naturally appealing to children’s strong sense of order.

Bringing play to life:

• How about finding similar items big and small around the house?
• If your child can count, how about trying to find a certain amount of big/small items?
• When out and about with your child, you can bring their attention to everything big and small. Can you spot a small car and a big one? You can do this with anything: transportation, animals, nature, buildings, food, etc.