When I found some acrylic apple table scatter at Michaels, I just knew they would be perfect to use on our DIY light table.
And I wasn't wrong. The apples look fantastic on the light table!
I decided to pair the apples with some containers on the light table and set up a little apple sorting activity. And my son loved it!
So, if you need a quick and easy apple color sorting activity (that also turned into a counting activity!), then you're going to love this activity idea.
What You'll Need for this Apple Sorting Activity
This apple theme activity is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers. Here's what you'll need:
- Acrylic apples in red and green - I found these at Michael's and they look amazing on the light table. You can substitute red and green glass stones.
- Two clear plastic cups - Ours are individual sized applesauce containers and we use these all the time on the light table.
- Permanent markers - You'll need red and green.
- Light table, light box, or similar - Although you can certainly do this activity off the light table as well.
First, you'll need to make your two color sorting cups. To do this, simply color the inside bottom part of your plastic cups with permanent markers, one red and one green. Let them dry for a few minutes before setting up the activity.
Then place the two cups and the acrylic apples on the light table like so:
Counting & Sorting Apples on the Light Table
Obviously, the object of the activity is to sort the apples into the matching container. So green apples in the green cup and red apples in the red cup. My oldest, J, quickly knew what to do, sorting the apples into the matching container.
However, J also kept track of how many apples there were by using his calculator. This boy and his calculator, I tell ya! There's a reason I made him a calculator cake for his birthday this year. (Turns out he's got hypernumeracy so it ALL makes sense now.) Anyway, here he is calculating apples...
...until all of the apples were properly sorted by color.
While this apple sorting activity was originally meant to focus on sorting by color, it quickly turned into a counting activity, as you can see. But that really isn't surprising given my son's love for numbers and math.
