Sorting Buttons: A Preschool Matching Game

This year I wrote a new math curriculum for preschool.  While I was satisfied with my math instruction lat year, I felt there was some room for improvement so I spent this last summer writing a curriculum that was more systematic and more preparatory for kindergarten.  I wanted to keep math play based, but with deliberate instruction.  In doing so, I came up with this game, Sorting Buttons, as a means to reinforce concepts of sorting by attributes.

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Materials:

• dot stickers
• file folder
• spinner (I borrowed the one pictured from an Eric Carle game.  You could also use a dice with matching colored dots on it.)
• game markers
• attribute buttons

The game objective is to reinforce sorting skills by selecting buttons from the bin with specific attributes.  Students flick the spinner and move their game piece to the next matching dot of that color, and choose a button from the bin of the same color.

While students to not actually sort the bin of buttons, (although that is one of my favorite uses of such buttons) this game requires students to differentiate the various attributes by selecting specific colors that match the dot their game marker has landed on.  It also teaches basic counting and one to one correspondence.

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Enjoy!