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Color Sorting

Sort and categorize different-colored objects.

Print Activity

Materials

  • crayons
  • small building blocks
  • paint chips
  • buttons
  • plastic bread tags
  • milk bottle caps
  • small toys and other colorful objects
  • objects that children collect outside: pebbles, leaves, twigs
  • paper bowls, clear plastic cups, plastic containers, shoe boxes and tops, plastic bags; to hold the sorted objects
  • construction paper, paper plates
  • glue and tape (for gluing/taping objects to paper so they can be displayed) 

Directions

Show children the objects and containers and model how to sort in different ways. Encourage exploration, offering children specific suggestions on days they need more guidance:

  • Crayons, buttons, paint chips: sort by single color; by shades, going from light to dark; by different light and dark colors (pinks, whites, yellows together, and browns and dark blues together); in patterns (blue shade, green shade, blue shade, etc., or light shade, dark shade, light shade).  
  • Building blocks: sort into containers; build something of a single color; build something with two alternating colors
  • Leaves, pebbles, or twigs: arrange these by color or pattern, then tape or glue to a paper plate
  1. Peep and friends!
  2. National Science Foundation
  3. 9Story
  4. American Public Television
  5. TVOntario

© 2024 WGBH Educational Foundation. All rights reserved. Peep and the Big Wide World and the Peep characters and related indicia are trademarks of WGBH Educational Foundation. All third party trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Used with permission. “Peep,” “Quack,” “Chirp,” “Tom” and “Nellie” were originally created by Kai Pindal for the National Film Board of Canada productions The Peep Show, © National Film Board of Canada, 1962, and Peep and the Big Wide World, © National Film Board of Canada, 1988. Peep and the Big Wide World ® is produced by WGBH and 9 Story Entertainment in association with TVOntario. Major funding for Peep and the Big Wide World is provided by the National Science Foundation. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1222607. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.