Sorting, categorising and matching different objects are important skills and the outdoors can give this new contexts, as well as a different sensory experience.

Outside, collect some natural materials – pine cones, sticks, twigs, stones, leaves etc.  Can your child ‘find the same’? Match a pine cone to a pine, a leaf to a leaf.  You could also sort these different objects into two different categories – can your child come up with some categories on their own?  Can they tell you why they have sorted the items like they have?