Sorting, Of All Sorts!

TODAY'S ACTIVITY
As the class completed brightly colored collages earlier this week, Usha observed the children sorting the shapes and colors when working. Today, she set up a smorgasboard of stations for sorting and classifying. This is an early form of practical mathematics.

Sorting marbles by color. It was determined in a post-game survey that we have lots more red than the other colors. An interesting discovery by Luca: "Hey, I thought it was a black marble, but it was a green marble and it changes color on the red dish!"




Sorting by color or species and counting small animals. The fun really started when they arranged little "circle times" on the matching color plates, complete with sing-alongs.






Sorting, naming and counting geometric shapes.









TODAY'S STORY
Ten Apples Up On Top, by Theo. Le Seig, illustrated by Roy McKie. You likely read this classic several times as a child, as it has been a staple in millions of elementary school classrooms for decades. It is a hilarious counting book with three animal friends in constant one-up-manship, balancing apples on their head. Children insist on counting the apples to see which animal has the most. They also seem to enjoy absurdity of anything to do with the head. A kill-joy bear attempts to ruin their game, with surprising results. Let's face it. The visual of anything but a hat on someone's head is a sure-fire laugh for a preschooler. Use of the "-head" suffix will unleash a swift stream of hysteria as they run through every single root word in their vocabularies. Who am I kidding? It works for adults. Go ahead, try it. You'll crack yourself up.

one gold star for the first parent to tell me the author's given name, which is intentionally misspelled on the cover.

"OM FOR KIDS" Update 9/21
When organizers of the event commend me on the contributions by my sponsors, I always defer to your incredible generosity to children in spirit of philanthropy. If you haven't had the opportunity to participate by sponsoring me, now is the time. Friday is the last day to sponsor me. Please CLICK HERE to make a secure online contribution to Covenant House California. 100% of the proceeds go directly life-saving services for homeless youth 24/7. It's a Yogathon, and my gratitude to you all can only be expressed in three words: "Snap, Crackle and Pop!"