Big, Small, Red, Round: Sorting Objects by What Makes Them the Same
Imagine dumping a big bucket of toy cars, blocks, and buttons onto the rug. Can you put all the red things together? All the round things together? All the tiny things together? That is exactly what scientists and mathematicians do every day, they sort things into groups by looking for what makes them the same.
What You'll Learn
- What it means to sort objects into groups - How the same objects can be sorted in more than one way - Two new words: attribute and category - How sorting helps us count and compare things
What Is an Attribute?
An attribute is a way of describing something. Color, size, shape, and texture are all attributes. Think about a small red rubber ball. It is round (that's its shape), it is red (that's its color), it is small (that's its size), and it is bouncy (that's its texture). Each of those words describes one attribute of the same ball, and each one could be used to sort it into a different group.
One Group, Many Ways to Sort
Say you have 12 buttons: 4 red, 4 blue, and 4 yellow. If you sort them by color, you get 3 groups of 4. Now dump those same 12 buttons back into a pile and sort them by size instead, big buttons in one pile, small buttons in another. You get completely different groups, even though it is the exact same 12 buttons! There is no single right way to sort, it all depends on which attribute you choose.
Grab 10 shoes from your family's shoe pile. Sort them by size first, then dump them together and sort them again by color. Notice how the groups change.
Which group below is sorted by SHAPE?
A red square block and a red rubber ball share which attribute?
Sort Your Own Toy Box
Gather 15 to 20 small household objects, like toys, spoons, or socks. Sort them into groups three different ways: first by color, then by size, then by what they are made of. Draw or take a photo of each sorted group, and tell a grown-up which way of sorting was hardest and why.
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