Recycling – sorting
The purpose of this resource is to provide suggestions to whānau about how they can facilitate mathematics conversations while sorting recycling.
About this resource
This section provides some ideas for how you can raise awareness and share mathematics using everyday experiences and resources found around your home. It includes ideas for supporting your children’s learning in all areas of mathematics: geometry, measurement, statistics, algebra, and numbers.
This page provides suggestions as to how mathematical conversations about geometry can be facilitated at home when sorting recycling.
Sorting
A really important skill in geometry is being able to sort and classify things according to their characteristics. The great thing is that this is exactly what we have to do when we sort the recycling. Ask your child to help you sort and talk about why these things (the plastics) are different from these things (the paper, the glass, or the metal).
As you are sorting, talk about other ways you can sort, by shape, size, or colour. You can carry these sorting ideas over to playing with toys together and sorting plastic animals (zoo or farm, bird or mammal) or small cars or action figures.
- "Let’s see how many glass things we have. You sort them out first, and then we’ll count. How come this isn’t glass? I can see through it!"
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