Goodnight Moon Sorting Activity

{For your convenience, this post may contain affiliate links}

There are a plethora of good bedtime books out there, but the one that stands out most in my mind is Goodnight Moon by Maragaret Wise Brown. It's the classic bedtime story, not to mention it is well written with preschool vocabulary and early literacy in mind (apparently, adult writers can learn a thing or two from the book as well!) The pictures are brilliant too- they show everyday items found in a typical house. My son can point and name virtually every item in the pictures because we've read (and re-read) the story so many times- I think that means it's time to incorporate the story into a fun pre-school sorting activity :-)

Supplies:

• Various small toys (some will be items found in the book, others should not be in the book)
• Two pails
• Goodnight Moon Book (the lap edition is our favorite one to read at bedtime because of it's large size! We used the travel size book for this activity)

Sorting is a great early math activity (we previously used sorting skills to make our own fishing game). While it does not involve numbers, it gives kids an understanding of how to organize information (also a great science skill!). This activity is especially well rounded because it also includes early literacy tools (like recall and reference skills) in a way preschoolers could understand.

I labeled the pails "In the story" and "Not in the story". Even though Cannon can't read yet, It's important for him to see and understand that when he sees print, there is a message being conveyed. I pointed out what each pail said and let him choose toys from the table to place in the pails.

 

We had to look back in the book a few times to help with the sort (the socks were tricky for Cannon because they are pictured in the book, but they are never specifically pointed out). Some of the easier ones were the bear and cow.



While Cannon wasn't quite ready go solo with this activity, we had a good time sorting it out together. And I know it's an activity we can come back to as many times as he'd like without losing interest (if the number of times we read the book is any indication of his interest, then this will be a regular activity in our house!)

Did you enjoy this activity? Make sure to check our other literature inspired activities like Inside, Outside, Upside Down!