Coming up in Math this week:

What Is Sorting?

You sort when you organize things into different groups.

For example, if you are looking at clothes, you might sort 

the clothes into shirts and other kinds of clothes. You can use 

a sorting circle to show your sorting.

Items that fit the sorting rule are shown inside the sorting

 circle, and items that do not fit the rule are shown outside 

the circle.

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How Can You Use Two Sorting Rules at the Same Time?

Objects can be sorted in different ways. Sometimes, two 

sorting rules can be used at the same time.

For example, shapes can be sorted by whether they are round

 and by whether they are blue. Some shapes are round 

and blue, some are just round, some are just blue, and some 

are neither round nor blue.

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How Can You Show the Results of Your Sorting?

When you sort with two sorting rules, you can use a 

Venn diagram with two overlapping circles to help show

 what you did.

There are 4 separate sections in a Venn diagram with two 

overlapping circles:

•	Things that fit one rule but not the other go inside one  circle only.
•	Things that fit both rules go inside the overlapping  part of the circles.
•	Things that don’t fit either rule go outside the circles.

For example, in the Venn diagram below, some toys have

 been sorted by whether they are used by 

toddlers and whether they are toys you ride.

It is okay for a Venn diagram to have an empty section. 

For example, if you use a Venn diagram to sort animals 

and plants, there would be nothing in the overlapping section.

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Helping Your Child

Encourage your child to tell you different ways you 

might sort items found at home, such as clothing or food. 

You can even have your child consider more than one idea

 at a time, for example, whether the food goes into the fridge

 and also whether you bought it at the grocery store.

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Definitions

sort: to put together things that belong with one another 

for some reason

sorting rule: the rule you use to put certain items together

 when you sort them

Venn diagram: a diagram, often one or more circles, 

showing how a set of items might be sorted by different 

attributes; when circles overlap, items belong in one of 

the two circles, in the overlapping section, or outside both 

circles