Lesson 4 of 8 3 min read Free course

Sort it out

Fruit in one box, toys in the other — grouping things is how computers organise everything.

Do this together

Name each thing together first: apple, banana, ball, car. Then ask, "Is this something we eat, or something we play with?" The child taps a thing, then taps the box it belongs in.

Tap a thing, then tap the box it goes in.

Grown-up tip

Sorting with a rule ("things we eat") is the same idea a program uses when it puts data into groups. Sort the washing or the toy box the same way.

For the grown-up

This is a free activity 4 of 8 in Little Coders: First Patterns, Sorting and Sequences — Eight picture activities for ages 3–5 — no reading, no account, nothing saved. A grown-up reads one line; the child taps. You read the one-line prompt aloud and your child taps the answer; there is nothing to install, the child needs no account of their own, and nothing they do is stored.

Tip: If the child wants the same activity again and again, that is the point — repetition is how sequencing sticks at this age.

A few minutes at a time is plenty, and doing the same activity again is good — repetition is how these first ideas stick. When your child is ready for short sentences and their own typing, the paid courses for older ages carry on from here. See how we handle children's data on our privacy page.