How Many Holes Are In Your Buttons?
How Many Holes Are In Your Buttons?
Sorting
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- Buttons with just three holes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Materials
- 100 buttons of various shapes, colors, number of holes, sizes
- Paper
- Crayon, pen or marker
Instructions
- Draw three large circles on the paper
- Ask your grandchild to look at the buttons and pick out a way to sort them into the three large circles b some way the button could be described
- Start by suggesting that they sort them by color: light, dark, patterned
- Ask them to think of another way to sort them. Another way might be by size: small, medium and large
- Another way to sort them might be by shape: round, square, odd shapes
- Another way to sort them might be by the number of holes in the button: none, three or four
What Should Happen?
As your grandchildren start thinking about different ways to sort the buttons, they may come up with their own ways, such as whether buttons are like the ones you see on different types of clothing: jackets and blouses, skirts and pants, coats. Or the type of surface of the button: shiny, flat, textured. Or the age of the people whose clothes they are on: children’s, teenagers’, adults’.
They will be introduced to the concept of attributes, different ways of sorting the same objects by some way you could describe the object.
Why Is This Useful?
Deciding on a way to organize objects is useful in putting them away and finding them again later.
For instance, books in a library are not organized by the color of the cover or the size of the book. They may be organized by the title, the last name of the author or by subject. If organized by subject, they are likely organized by the Dewey Decimal System, which assigns numbers to various subject areas so they will be easier for everyone to find in a library, and within that category, the first three letters of the author’s last name.
When you only have a few objects, say 20 or 30 books, you can just look through them all quickly to find the one you want. But, when you have a large number, say more than 100, an organizing scheme helps find exactly what you want, quickly.
Your kitchen, for instance, may be organized with glasses near the sink, coffee mugs near the coffee maker and plates and silverware near the dishwasher, so things are easy to find, easy to put away, and close to hand with other things you use.
Deciding on a way to organize objects is also useful when you don’t have all the objects when you start, but will want to introduce new ones as they are available.
This is true of books. With the Dewey Decimal System, new books can easily be added to the subject area where they belong. It is also true of the 118 chemical elements in the periodic table, a system that organizes elements according to their atomic number or number of protons, their electron configuration and common chemical properties, some of which have been discovered because the organizational system pointed to where there should be an element.
Thanks to Expert Village for this activity.
Carol Covin, Granny-Guru
Author, “Who Gets to Name Grandma? The Wisdom of Mothers and Grandmothers”
http://newgrandmas.com
Filed in: education
This is a lesson that feeds my OCD.
I wish I could tell you that was my intent, Jon. You're so funny!
I've used buttons to inspire character writing exercises. When my grandma passed away, I inherited her collection of buttons that fills a large Tupperware bin.
There is something about buttons from Moms and Grandmas that ties us to them, Jeri. How lucky you are to have inherited her collection. When I wrote this post, I went into my closet and got out all the little jars and boxes of my Mom's buttons and put them all in a big jar.
How do they inspire character writing, Jeri?
What a great post and a fun way to learn. Your posts remind me of my mother in law. She was teacher and she always found interesting ways of delivering information. I can admit she taught me a few things when I thought I was being entertained. 🙂
Sneaky mother-in-law. Best way to learn!
How fun. Button are fun objects to me. They’re pretty, useful, have great opportunity to use in arts and crafts projects and now a fun game and lesson for kids. ☺️
I was amazed, Susan, when I got out my Mom's collection of buttons for this post, how many different ways they could be sorted.
Hi Cheryl: It's funny how buttons seem to be fascinating my kitten (zippers, too!) but he loves to crunch on buttons and try to crack them with his sharp little teeth. He's already done so on some of my sweaters!
Your post reminded me Carol of my grandmother's collection of buttons and it was fun sorting them out when I was little.
She let you sort them out, Susan? What a lovely way to entertain a grandchild and bond the generations!
I used to have my children sort my buttons. I sewed a lot and had a big collection. Organizational skills should be taught at an early age. My children are more organized than I am. I was never taught these skills as my mother did everything for us. Boy does it show today.