Montessori Activity: Sorting Hard & Soft Objects

Age: From 2.5 years old

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To teach the concept of hard and soft.

Materials:

1. 10 soft objects (e.g. cotton wool, sponge, soft ball, soft teddy bear, play dough, styrofoam, mitten, rubber brick, bath toy, pom pom, toilet paper, etc.)

2. 10 hard objects (e.g. pine cone, stone, pebble, sea-shell, marble, lego brick, pasta, hard plastic ball, wooden block, chalk, mobile phone, bottle cap, fanta-colour peg, etc.)

3. 1 large container to contain them.

4. 2 bowls

5. 1 blind fold (optional)

6. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Put on the blindfold on your child, pass him a hard object and ask, "Is this hard or soft?" "Make a guess what it is?" Talk about how he feels when touching it.

2. Remove the blindfold and let your child place it in the bowl for hard objects.

3. Put on the blindfold on your child, pass him a soft object and ask, "Is this hard or soft?" and "Make a guess what it is?" Talk about how he feels about touching it.

4. Remove the blindfold and let your child place it in the bowl for soft objects.

5. Repeat for the rest of the items, until all the items are sorted into hard and soft objects.

Additional Information:

J (2Y7M2D) played this activity together with Amy today taking turns. They enjoyed it very much.