Prior to working with geometric shapes, provide students with opportunities to sort and re-sort objects such as buttons, socks, container tops, or even classmates. Young children benefit from handling, manipulating, drawing, and representing objects and shapes in different ways. They also benefit from playing in the block center. This is a natural environment for students to be sorting and noticing the attributes of the various blocks as they are building structures.

In pre-sorting experiences, provide students with opportunities to describe and explore objects and geometric figures in their immediate environment. This helps students to become familiar with vocabulary necessary for more sophisticated sorting experiences in later school years. When students compare two objects, it helps them to identify similarities and differences. For example, a student directly comparing a pencil to a crayon might say the following: "They're the same color. The pencil is long and the crayon is short." Support students by encouraging them to ask questions about other students' comparisons.