🔢 MathLevel 1Lesson 25
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Collecting and Sorting Objects

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What you will learn

  • 1Sort a group of objects by one property — such as color, shape, or size
  • 2Explain the sorting rule used
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Mini Lesson

Look around the room — you'll see buttons, blocks, crayons, and all kinds of objects. When we put objects into groups that go together, we are sorting. The thing we look at to sort, like color, is called a property.

What is a property?

  • A property is something you can see or feel about an object.
  • Common properties: color, shape, size.
  • Example: all the red buttons go in one group; all the blue buttons go in another.

How to sort

  • Pick one property to sort by — don't mix rules.
  • Look at each object and ask: does it match my rule?
  • Place it in the correct group.
  • Count how many are in each group when you're done.

The same objects can be sorted different ways!

  • A set of shapes can be sorted by color or by shape or by size.
  • The objects don't change — only the sorting rule changes.

Words to know

Sort

To put objects into groups that match

e.g. I sort blocks by color.

Property

Something you can see or feel about an object

e.g. Color is a property of a button.

Group

A set of things that go together

e.g. All the red blocks go in one group.

Rule

The way you decide which group each thing goes in

e.g. My sorting rule is "by shape".

Sorting shapes by color into two groups: red and blueTwo labeled boxes. The left box labeled red contains a red circle, a red square, and a red triangle. The right box labeled blue contains a blue circle and a blue square.Sorting Rule: ColorRedBlue3 objects2 objectsEach group shares one property.
The same shapes sorted into two groups by the property of color — red objects together, blue objects together.
The same shapes now sorted by shape into three groups: circles, squares, and trianglesThree labeled boxes. Circles box has a red circle and a blue circle. Squares box has a red square and a blue square. Triangles box has a red triangle.Same Objects — New Rule: ShapeCirclesSquaresTriangles221Same objects — different sorting rule!
The exact same five shapes now sorted by shape — the objects did not change, only the sorting rule did.
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Ask yourself: "Can I name the sorting rule I used? Can I sort the same objects again with a different rule?"

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