Recycling Sort: Which Bin?

Five labelled bins are printed once across the top of this kindergarten page as a key — Paper, Plastic, Glass, Metal, Compost — and below it six rows each show one object beside the same five bins repeated without their names. The sheet shown gives a honey jar, an envelope, an orange, a shampoo bottle, a tin can and a cardboard parcel. The child circles the bin each thing belongs in when it is empty or finished, using the key at the top to tell the bins apart.

Turning the base page's open drawing into a five-way choice removes the crossing lines and leaves only the decision. It also adds a small reading task that the base page does not have: in the rows the bins carry no words, only the marks on their lids — three dots, three bars, one bar, a zig-zag — so the key has to be carried down the page in the head or checked against each time.

One sheet, six rows, six circles. Fold it so the key stays visible if your children lose it, or colour the five key bins together before you start so the lids become easier to tell apart. This is the quickest of the recycling faces and the one to use as a check after the sorting page rather than as a first introduction.