Minds On
Sorting
Let’s sort some fruits and vegetables! Fruits have seeds and vegetables have roots, stems, and leaves.
Would you put a cucumber under fruit or vegetable? Could you put cucumber under both headings?
This is an image of the following eighteen fruits and vegetables: apple, green beans, lemon, red onion, peas, corn, orange, broccoli, avocado, tomatoes, pear, watermelon, pumpkin, kiwi, beets, lettuce, red pepper, and cucumber.
Sort the fruits and vegetables. Record your ideas in your notebook or another method of your choice.
Action
Venn diagram
A Venn diagram is a sorting graphic organizer that has:
- two circles that overlap each other
- labels on the parts of the circle that are not overlapping
- the right and left sections are for the ideas, objects, shapes or numbers that only belong to that category
- the centre section is for the ideas, objects, shapes, or numbers that belong in both categories
Let’s sort the fruits and vegetables to “green” and “vegetables.”
There are three sections.
Anything green and not a vegetable would go into the GREEN circle.
All the vegetables that are not green can go into the VEGETABLE circle
Anything that is both green AND a vegetable can go in the middle section.
Where would you put something that is not green and not a vegetable?
Choose a fruit or vegetable and record where you would put it on the Venn diagram.
Press ‘Answer’ to reveal how the fruits and vegetables are sorted.
Inside of the Green category are avocado, pear, watermelon and kiwi. Inside of the Vegetables category are red pepper, pumpkin, corn, red onion, and beets. The overlapping green and vegetable categories have lettuce, green beans, cucumber, broccoli and peas. Outside of either the green or vegetable category are apple, orange, tomato, and lemon.
Brainstorm
Brainstorm
Let’s sort a new set of items. This time you are going to sort animals.
Use the Venn diagram to sort the animals or record a description of how you would sort them.
One section of the Venn diagram says, “Pets.”
The other says “Four Legs.”
The animals that will be in the Animals Venn Diagram are:
- Pets
- Four Legs
- The middle section of pets with four legs
Will any animals not go in either of the circles? Where will you put those animals?
Could any of the animals be put in a different section?
Complete the Animals Venn Diagram in your notebook or using the following fillable and printable document.
Press the ‘Activity’ button to access the Animals Venn Diagram.
Press ‘Answer’ to reveal one example of how to sort the animals.
The left side of the Venn diagram is labelled Pets and lists bird and fish. The right side of the Venn diagram is labelled Four legs, and lists horse, tiger, pig, and cow. The overlapping center of the Venn diagram is for both of the categories of pets and four legs, and lists cat, dog, and turtle. The animals that are outside of the categories are monkey, chicken, and duck.
Consolidation
Practice task
For the following task, you are going to decide how to sort the following items of clothing.
Choose two different attributes to sort the clothing. These could become the titles of each section of your circles.
Press ‘Hint’ to reveal possible attributes to sort the clothing by.
Possible attributes to sort clothing:
- top/bottom
- buttons/no buttons
- colour
- zipper/no zipper
- sporty/not sporty
Complete the Venn Diagram in your notebook or using the following fillable and printable document.
Press the ‘Activity’ button to access the Venn Diagram.
Reflection questions
- What did you learn in this lesson that has added to your understanding about sorting data?
- What is important to consider when sorting data that share different attributes?
- How does using a Venn diagram help you to sort data?
Reflection
How do you feel about what you have learned in this activity? Which of the next four sentences best matches how you are feeling about your learning? Press the button that is beside this sentence.
I feel…
Now, record your ideas about your feelings using a voice recorder, speech-to-text, or writing tool.