Bear Ordering and Sorting Inspired by Bear Stays Up for Christmas
One of our favourite themes from last winter’s virtual book club for kids was bears – we created a fun way using bear paws to learn to read and spell names. This year we are revisiting the theme of bears and the featured book Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson with a really easy hands-on maths activity for ordering and sorting using some of the bears from the soft toy collection. So here it is our Bear Ordering and Sorting Activity perfect for toddlers and preschoolers. Don’t forget to check down to the end of the instructions where we will share some additional activities that will work with Bear Stays Up for Christmas.

Bear Stays Up for Christams by Karma Wilson
We have included links to affiliate products and resources that we recommend in this activity.
We have chosen the featured book Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson for our Storybook Advent. As you go through the story you find the bear trying to stay up for Christmas with the help of his friends as they enjoy lots of the Christmas Themed Activities that you own kids will enjoy.
Materials needed for Teddy Bear Ordering and Sorting
A selection of bears from the soft toy collection to do this on a large scale…
OR you could use a set of bear family counters which come in different colours and sizes and would be ideal to use if you wanted to set this up in a math centre.
Learning Outcomes
- To be able to sort objects into different Categories e.g. size, colour, shape
- To be able to order objects smaller to largest and largest to smallest
More Activities that work on these Learning Outcomes on different themes
How to go about Ordering and Sorting Teddy Bears with Toddlers and Preschoolers
Once you have a collection of bears you can start to sort them into groups first of all.

Look at the bears you have and make a decision on what sort of grouping you could have we went with

- By size
- Type of fur
- Colour of fur
- Whether or not they had clothes or not
Move the teddies into the different sorts – if you want to get your kids active at the same time why not position some hula hoops and ask your child/children to go and place the bears in the groupings inside the hoops.

With the bears sorted as many ways as possible it’s time to order them – ask the children for ways in which you could order them

- size – big to small
- size – small to big
- colours of the rainbow
- from dark to light
- old to new
- new to old
Then order them placing first where they think they should go and then moving them into different places until they have the ordered correctly.

More Bear Stays Up for Christmas Activities for Kids
Help the Bear Stay Up for Christmas with this fun STEAM activity for Kids.
Download and print our FREE 3-Part Montessori Inspired Bear Stays Up for Christmas Cards and use with some of the suggested Bear Activities for Preschoolers.
Keep the kids active and moving this Christmas with these Bear Stays Up Gross Motor Activities. Perfect if you are stuck indoors over the winter months.
Get the imagination flowing with this Snowy Invitation to Play Inspired by Bear Stays Up for Christmas.
Make some Bear Paw Print Cookies with the kids as a delicious treat to eat whilst you do this activity.
More Bear Based Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
This week’s host and co-hosts have created these additional bear themed activities and crafts for toddlers and preschoolers
Teddy Bear Ordering and Sorting – You Are Here!
Bear Cave Alphabet Game – Inspiration Laboratories
Printable Bear Counting Activity – The Educator’s Spin on It
Bear Snores on Snack Time – My Storytime Corner
Bear Dreamed About Colours, Printable Book to Colour – J Daniel 4’s Mom
Bear Themed Play Dough Mats – Preschool Powol Packets
Hibernating Bear Craft – Still Playing School
Building Shapes and More Bear Themed Learning – Mama Smiles
Easy Paper Bag Bear Mask for Kids to Make – Toddler Approved
Pin this Bear Themed Maths Activity to do later

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What a lovely collection of loved bears!
Thank you – some of them are very well loved 🙂