We were doing a stuffed animal reorg today, which was the perfect chance not only to toss everything into a giant pile and remember every one hiding in there, but also a chance to throw in some learning! This was a riff on a previous animal sort activity Veronika and I did, but today she was a full year older and wiser about it.

First, I sorted the animals into piles, roughly categorized as: Giant, Big, Medium, and Small. Veronika’s challenge was to find an animal from the pile I asked for.

“Where’s a big animal? I asked, and she waded right through the piles to bring me one that qualified.

“Can you find me one that’s teeny tiny and small?” I challenged next. “Ladybug is small!” she chirped up, and proudly presented it.

Then we tested out the concept of length. I lined up all of our snakes (since it turns out we have way more snakes than I remembered!), and asked her to show me the longest.

And then the shortest!

You can also have fun sorting the animals by home or habitat. It turns out we have very few animals that live in the water, but many denizens of farms and forests.

What other ways can your toddler learn with stuffed animals? Please share in the comments!