ECE 151: Math in the Preschool

Theme: Classification

Age & Number of Children: 6 four-year-olds

Content Standards: 2.0 Patterns, Functions &Algebra: 2. PK. 1 Sort objects by similar

attributes.

Objectives: Participation in this activity will increase the child’s ability to

1.   Use at least three words to describe shells.

2.   Sort a selection of shells into groups, at least three different ways.

3.   Define the differences from different groups of shells.

Materials: 22 pieces of shells with different color, shape, size for each group. Each kind of

shells has different sizes. Children can sort them in at least three different ways.

Activity: First show several shells to the children asking “What is that? What do we call them?”

Give each group of 22 shells. Give children enough time to explore with the shells. “Please put

your shells down.” Ask one student to select a special shell from their group. “Tell me why do

you think this shell is special?” then put this shell in the middle of the group, ask the rest of the

group “Can everyone find a shell that is____ (the word he/she just used to describe the shell).

When the children all find the shell, put them in the middle of the group. And point to the group

of shells and say “All the shells are the same, because they____ (let children say the

characteristic they just described). Ask another child to pick one shell, and describe why it is

special. Repeat the all steps, until they find at least three different way to describe the shells.
Then have children work with their group, one child pick one shell and the rest of the child pick

their own shell to match it. The teacher can observe the children. See if someone need extra help

to identify the characteristic of the shells.

When all the children understand the above procedure, tell them to “place the 22 pieces of shells

into groups that are the same” one by one. As children finish making groups, point at different

group of shells, ask each child “How the shells in this group are the same?” Let them explain

why those shells need to come together in the same group.

Repeat this procedure with each child.

The children who already finished identify the shells may go to the block area join a transition

activity.

What Happened: All the children were very interested in the shells, and they were pretending

to use the shell as a phone to call their friends. They were good at describing the shells. The

dimensions identified were big, small, hard, light color, dark color, round.

At the first, Coni had difficulty to pick the shell match his peer’s shell, Exie helped him, by

telling him “you can look closer to the shell. When they pick a big one, you just need to pick a

big shell, that’s it.” After they tried couple times, Coni had no more problem with it.

Exie was volunteered to be the first one to sort the shells, she sorted them by color, shape and

size. All the children were able to sort the shells into three groups and also had no problem to

identify the classification dimension.

What Next: Develop a lesson plan which focuses on the different patterns of the shell. Choose

shells that have very different patterns, and also some with similar patterns. Give Coni items that

are most differently. Encourage the children to find different patterns for all the shells. Also let

the children trace the patterns on the paper, to help them understand better. As they understand

the pattern, ask them to put the shells in groups which have the same pattern.