Sorting Stickers

Sweet Pea is 31 months old.

From: I bought a cheapo sticker & album set from the Dollar Store.  When I gave it to Sweet Pea, she started sorting the stickers by color all on her own.  I was pretty impressed that she had made up her own Tot School activity with it.

Material:

• A sheet of stickers & a reusable sticker album.  These usually come in a set that contains 1 or 2 sheets of stickers and an album with several waxed pages so they stickers can be re-used.   Oriental Trading Company has a Hello Kitty album and also a Shrek version.   I have occasionally seen them for sale at Dollar Store and in the Target Dollar Spot.

Procedure:

• Look at the sticker sheet and decide how the stickers can be sorted (size, color, animal type, etc.).
• If your tot still has some difficulty with stickers, peel the backing off before giving them the sticker sheet.
• Sit next to your tot and show them a sheet of stickers.  Flip through the pages of the sticker album so your tot can see that there are several blank pages.
• Tell your tot that you are going to sort the stickers as you put them into the album.  Then say for example, “Lets put all the blue dolphins on the first page,” as you  stick the blue dolphin to the first page.
• Select a sticker that will be sorted to a different page.  For example, “Oh, now I’ll put this orange dolphin on the next page,” as you flip the page and  put the sticker there.
• Now pick a sticker that belongs on either the first or second page.  Say, “Here’s another blue one.  That goes on the first page,” as you stick it next to the first blue one.
• When you think your tot has the idea, hand the sticker sheet to them and suggest that they choose a sticker and put it on a page.
• Let your tot continue peeling, sorting and sticking the rest of the stickers, helping them as necessary.

Observations: Considering that sorting hasn’t always held her interest, I thought this went over really well.  Sweet Pea is crazy about stickers so that probably helped, but I was really happy with how long she was engaged with this activity.

If your tot likes stickers, this would probably be a good activity for him or her.

Notes from the Trenches: Sweet Pea would occasionally make some mistakes with the sorting, so the re-usable aspect of the pages was especially nice.   Early on Sweet Pea unfortunately discovered that the backside of the cover was not waxed, so a sticker that she had mistakenly put there couldn’t be removed.

Rating: 3 Stars * (Fun, Easy, Independent)