Seasons Sorting Stones

Please read the procedure before beginning! After reading, please watch the video. Some activities require more time and cleanup than others. You also have the choice of performing these activities in a way that suits your needs.

Not for children under 3 years. Adult supervision required. Follow approved procedures

Materials

· 12 Stones

· Seasons Stickers

· 4 Wood Slices

· Seasons Labels

Procedure

1. Place one of the 12 circle-shaped seasons stickers on each of the stones.

2. Place one of the 4 rectangle-shaped seasons labels on each of the wood slices.

3. Practice counting the stones, stacking the stones, and identifying the objects on the stones.

4. Sort the stones by placing them on the wood slice with the season that makes the most sense based on the object on the stone. Why did you choose a given object for a specific season? Would you expect to see that object during a different season? What other things can you think of that go with the seasons?

The Science Behind It

This fun activity is great for Preschoolers to practice their math and sorting skills. Sorting anything helps children develop executive function skills such as organizing and prioritizing, staying focused on certain tasks, and regulating emotion. Sorting is great for the brains of little children because it supports the growth of their knowledge of scientific concepts that things can belong to and be organized in specific groups. In this interactive STEM kit, the seasons are the specific groups that they will be sorting into. This helps children also develop a wide range of thinking skills and aids in the foundations for problem solving later in life. They are determining how things are alike and different. Some of the topics that they are going to learn is the difference between the weather and also making comparisons and contrasting hold and cold, snow, rain, sleet, wind, sun, etc. Weather patterns can also be explored and you can find your own rocks outside and make your very own sorting for basically anything that Preschoolers and Kindergarteners need to know. The ground is yours to explore.

This is super important in the development of math skills as well because they can learn to count in and out of different piles. This will lead them to learn numeracy, the meaning of numbers, and use addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. This is needed for everyday living in daily activities such as telling the time, cooking, budgeting, planning a trip, reading a map, and even understanding timetables they will study later on.