Orange and Black Sort

from 15 months · 5-10 min · Fine motor

What you need

two bowls
a handful of orange and black things from round the house, each too big to fit through a toilet roll tube

Gather a few orange and black things from round the house: socks, blocks, a toy, a small pumpkin if you have one.
Put two bowls in front of your toddler, one with an orange thing in it and one with a black thing.
Pick up the next thing, say its colour and drop it in the matching bowl.
Hand them the rest one at a time and let them choose the bowl.

Putting each thing with the ones that match is the start of sorting, and two clear colours keep the choice simple enough to try on their own.

Colour matching: Spotting that a sock and a block are both orange is the same close looking used later for matching shapes and pictures.
Grasp and release: Picking a thing up and letting go of it over the right bowl trains the controlled release behind stacking and posting.
Making choices: Picking a bowl for each thing, and changing their mind, is them trying out an idea of their own.

Watch for a pause before they drop something in, as they look from the thing to the bowls. A wrong bowl is fine; just say the colour and carry on.

Use only things too big to fit through a toilet roll tube. It doesn't matter if your orange is more of a red.

Easier: hold up each thing and let them point to the bowl it goes in

Harder: add a third bowl for white things