- books
- bookshelf (small)
- paper
- pictures
- compare
- fewer
- more
- sort
MA Standards:
Language/L.PK.MA.5.a: Demonstrate understanding of concepts by sorting common objects into categories (e.g., sort objects by color, shape, or texture).
Mathematics/Counting and Cardinality/PK.CC.MA.5: Use comparative language, such as more/less, equal to, to compare and describe collections of objects.
Head Start Outcomes:
Approaches to Learning/Persistence and Attentiveness: The ability to begin and finish activities with persistence and attention.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language: Engage in play experiences that involve naming and sorting common words into various classifications using general and specific language.
Mathematics/Patterns and Relations: Sort, categorize, or classify objects by more than one attribute.
Let's Sort and Compare
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
Educator Prep: Prepare a bookshelf by clearing it off and taping a picture that represents each type of book (animal, plants, colors, family, etc.) and placing a small group of books in front of the shelf.
Have children sort books and place them on a bookshelf. Model how to first identify the topic of the book, then match it to the picture on the shelf. Hold up a book, point to the picture on the cover, and ask, What type of book do you think this is? There’s a flower on the cover. Yes, it’s a book about flowers! Place the book on the shelf that has a picture of a flower.
Once children have finished sorting the books and placing them on the shelves, ask them to compare the numbers of books on each shelf. Ask questions such as, Which shelf has more books? Which has fewer? What can you do to make this shelf have more books than that shelf? Encourage children to use key vocabulary terms more and less as they answer.
English Language Learners: Give children sentence frames to help them generate the terms more and less. Point to the shelves and say, This shelf has (more) books. This shelf has (less). Give children time to generate the term before helping them say it.