Brick Playbook: Parent Edition
Sort It Out
Develop and use pattern recognition for sorting and categorizing bricks.
Objective:
Child will be able to notice different ways of grouping items.
Essential Question(s):
How can we sort similar things?
What aspects of objects are important?
Special Materials:
Bins for sorting bricks
Bricks Required:
All (or as many as need sorting)
Project Structure
Engage/Explain:
- Begin by asking about patterns in the bricks. How can they be grouped? By size, by color, by general type (1xn bricks, 2xn bricks, plates, tiles)?
- Start out with a small amount of bricks based on one feature only (color, size etc). Then work up to more bricks and features to be sorted.
- Ask what is the best way to sort the bricks.
- Discussion may include:
- Sorting by color makes it easy to find all the parts of one color.
- Sorting by size makes it easy to find the right shape for your creation.
- Sorting by general type requires fewer containers but will involve more digging.
- What should be done about parts where there aren’t a lot of them, e.g., tiles?
- Discussion may include:
Explore:
- Agree upon categories and sort the bricks.