Montessori Monday - Visual Discrimination with Cans

One of the activities I set up for my girls (3 years old) last week was to sort various cylinder-shaped containers and cans from our pantry.  The challenge in this exercise lies in the fact that the containers vary in two different dimensions - height and base diameter, so they can actually be sorted in two different ways.  The kids had to focus on a single dimension to make their comparisons.

They did an excellent job, but sorting by height was definitely easier for them than sorting by base diameter (sorry - didn't get pictures of that one).  I showed them how to look down on the containers instead of from the side (which is also good practice for learning maps/topography).  I've found that my kids seem to get more excited about 'playing' with household items than toys.

They asked to stack the cans and containers, but I was a little worried about cans denting when they fall on the floor, so I gave them some different food containers to stack:

 

A morning of Montessori-inspired fun and learning with items from our pantry...