Sweet Sorting: A Fun Activity to Practice Categorizing

To some parents’ dismay, candy at Halloween time is unavoidable! Your third grader will be given the sweet stuff everywhere – school, parties, trick-or-treating, even at the doctor! You can put all that candy to good use with this motivating activity in which your child will sort and categorize his treats according to specific attributes. Delay your child’s sugar overload, and develop his critical thinking skills, by doing some “sweet sorting” of his Halloween treasures!

What You Need:

A variety of Halloween candy

3x5 index cards

What You Do:

1. On Halloween night, once your third grader returns from trick-or-treating, guide her to an open area on the floor to spread her candy. Ask her to look through her candy and brainstorm ways it could be sorted. For example, candy could be sorted by the major ingredients (chocolate, fruit, peanuts), texture (soft, chewy, hard, smooth, bumpy) and size (big, medium, small). Encourage her to brainstorm other attributes as well.

2. Next, ask your child to choose one of the attributes and list categories for it. For example, if she chooses to sort her candy by its texture, the categories would be soft, hard, chewy, smooth, and bumpy. Your child should create headings by writing each category on an index card.

3. Now it’s time to sort! Before she begins, ask your child to make a guess as to which of the categories will have the most candy. Spread the index cards on the floor and help your child begin to sort her candy under the correct category (In order to determine the candy’s texture, some tasting may be required!). Other family members may want to get involved in this project as well. When all candy has been sorted, have your child count the number of pieces under each category and write the number on the index card. Did she guess correctly?