Button Sort

Buttons are intriguing to little people!  About a year ago we started playing with buttons-a lot!  They are great for counting, sorting, and identifying colors.

Using an egg carton, I made a color sorting game for M, then 2 years old.  She was able to sort the buttons into appropriate groups.

I began with only the colors she knew at the time (shown), but later filled most of the sections of the egg carton with different  colors.

I used an egg carton and colored small pieces of paper to show M where to sort the buttons. I colored both sides of the paper in case they flipped, and I was glad I did.

 I thought the brown, black, and navy blue would be confusing since they are all so dark in color, but she did great. Though I had selected which buttons she would sort, there were three buttons that confused her a bit. One was blue/gray, though more gray. She quickly decided that it would be on its own. A bright pink, nearly red button became a color of its own, too. I can't blame her since the other pink buttons were very pale. A maroon button went from the red to the brown to the red pile. In the end she did choose the red pile for the maroon button.

If you have a child who still puts objects in their mouth, the button sort activity should be supervised.

(Photo from spring 2009)

We keep the button sort activity on top of the refrigerator since when we began she still mouthed objects and we had a baby in the house.  It remains up there, though it still is used upon request.  I keep the buttons  for this activity separate from the rest of our button collection.

May I make a suggestion?  If you don't have a button collection, ask a woman from another generation if she might.  Derek's grandma gave us an incredible amount of buttons to use that she had saved over the years.

If you are looking for another use of your buttons for a preschool craft, you can check out our button book, too!

I'm linking up to ABC and 123's show and tell!  They are a great site for preschool (and older) ideas!