Making Sets (Learning Attributes)

by Lauri
(Holland, MI)

Make your own set of Attribute Pieces. You'll need a piece of card stock or posterboard and a piece of foam core board. (You can probably make these from scraps--you don't need much.) Cut out 4 each of large & small circles, triangles, squares & rectangles from both the thick & thin material. Color the pieces (red, green, blue & yellow) with markers or crayons. Using a length of string or a shoelace with the ends tied together, make a large circle on the floor. Tell the children to make sets (in the circle) of pieces that have "something alike". You may need to demonstrate a few times (i.e. a set of circles or a set of red things). Two-year-olds can "get this" easily. Older kids can sort by more than one attribute (i.e. red circles or large circles). I had a two-year-old who made a set we couldn't figure out. I had him whisper it in my ear and he said, "its a set of all the things that aren't yellow." Pretty sophisticated for a two-year-old!