Picture a tray of coloured pencils all mixed up. What a mix-up! How could we tidy them into groups? What could we sort them by?
A sorting rule is what is the same about the things we put together, like colour or how many corners. A group is everything that follows that rule. How many in the group is the count of things that landed there.
Three sorts on the board. For each one, watch the sorting rule and count how many land in each group.
One pupil comes to the board and drags each shape into the right group: 3 corners or 4 corners. The class watches and, after every shape lands, we count both groups aloud.
Sorting hoops are two big circles side by side, like the groups on the board. Things that belong together go in the same hoop.
In your maths copy, draw two sorting hoops. In one hoop draw 3 red pencils. In the other draw 2 blue pencils. Write how many are in each hoop.
We sort and count together on the board. One pupil drags; after each sort we all count every group out loud.
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