Egg Carton Sorter

By Korey Marquez

Identifying colors is a necessary skill that people use every day—for choosing which clothes to wear, reading signs, following traffic signals and describing the surrounding world. Introduce your child to this bright new world of colors using ordinary household objects such as buttons, beads, and marbles. She can group these objects into different sections and learn to recognize their written names using a homemade egg carton sorter. This activity provides an interactive, colorful way for your preschooler to practice color recognition!

What You Need:

• Paper egg carton (half-dozen or full dozen)
• Paint or markers in 6-12 different colors
• Writing pen
• Small, brightly-colored trinkets such as buttons, beads, or glass stones

What You Do:

1. Help your child paint the lid of the egg carton with white paint or cover it with plain paper.
2. Have your child make a small spot of each color on the egg carton lid. Write the name of the color above it with a pen.
3. On the inside of the carton, use paint or markers to designate a color for each as well.
4. Ask your child to sort the trinkets according to color, placing each one in the appropriate well. Start a conversation about the different colors with your child as you sort, asking her to name the color or point to it as she sorts each trinket. Show her the word on the lid that corresponds with each color.

To store the activity for later use, simply close the carton lid with the trinkets inside. The contents will be kept sound and ready for the next color sorting exercise!