Toys for sorting and matching can be expensive, and they have one use. A simple walk down the nuts and bolts aisle of your local hardware store will give you inspiration for this easy and inexpensive activity that teaches sorting and classifying for preschoolers.
This is excellent fine motor skills work too. And all that for pennies rather than the expensive toys.
Sorting and Classifying Game with Hardware Store Items
Getting any preschooler to sit still and focus for a bit is a challenge, but young boys tend to be even more wiggly. Utilizing an item that is not a typical fine motor toy like the button and zipper toys adds interest and excitement for any preschooler.
Preschoolers think they are using grown up stuff since they get to handle real nuts and bolts for this activity that challenges them to sort, classify, group and use those fine motor finger skills.
Supplies:
Grab 4-5 different sizes of bolts. I grabbed 3 of each size to make the activity last a little longer. Then, get the matching size nut for each bolt. Often to keep it simpler, you can get a package that has nuts and bolts of a variety of sizes. Look out for that.
Note: If you have trouble knowing what to buy, show this article to the employee at your local hardware store and they will know exactly what you need.
At home:
This is one learning activity for preschoolers that will go better if you as the parent (or teacher) show them how to put the nuts on the bolts. It will take a little figuring and focus to find the matching nut for each bolt, but it is such a great fine motor activity.
After demonstrating what they need to do, let your child work through it. If they need help, it can simplify things to group the nuts by similar size.
This will take some time. It is good patience-building for young children to work through the problem-solving of matching the nut to the bolt.
After the bolts all have nuts screwed on to them, the bolts can be arranged into size order to practice ordering from longest to shortest. And you can group the same-size bolts together to match them.
If that is not enough to keep them occupied and learning for a while, try this extension idea for older preschoolers and even kindergarten-aged kiddos.
Extension Activity: DIY Nuts and Bolts Puzzle
Using the nuts and bolts, place a few on a piece of paper, one at a time, and trace around them. Just to the best of your ability; no need to be perfect!
This creates a DIY puzzle. (We have so many DIY puzzle ideas here on the blog!)
Store the nuts and bolts in a Ziploc bag so this game can be used over and over again as a quiet time or center activity for preschool.
So simple. And big learning.
Try this one with your older preschooler or kindergarten kid and win a prize when you share with me!
Post a picture of your child doing this activity to the SAHM Survival Guide Facebook page, or share a picture of your child doing the activity and tag me on Instagram. (@sahmsg_jaimi)
When you tag me, I will send you a copy of my book A Parent’s Guide to School Choice: All the school options you DO have for even more “food for thought” on the preschool, school and homeschool planning process.
Enjoy, have fun and I can’t wait to send you the book!
