Sets Scavenger Hunt

Activity Overview

Our brains are highly skilled at classifying items. We constantly seek new information by determining how it relates to that with which we are already familiar. More specifically, categorizing items into groups or sets helps us to generalize knowledge that we already have about how those things will behave. Many things occur naturally in groups: points on leaves, ears, fins. Noticing these patterns helps us to understand relationships between groups. Focusing on the language associated with these groupings helps to further comprehend the purpose of these classifications. Plus, some things are just better in sets – like a dozen donuts!

What You Need

• Sets Scavenger Hunt slides: optional to print out the slides and the recording sheet

• A device for taking photographs

• Examples of sets from around your home or neighborhood

Steps

1. Spend some time reviewing the objects on the slides. Use the Guiding Questions to discuss and define the ideas of “sets,” “groups,” and the more specific language of “pairs,” and “trios.”

2. Go on a scavenger hunt inside or outside and look for groups of things that come in sets. Take photographs of the sets you find! Don’t forget that sets can be big or small, but they should be considered something that you would expect to find in a standard way. For example, most cars have four wheels, and you can expect that if you bought a new car, you wouldn’t buy one with three or five wheels. On the other hand, trash cans are often seen in groups, however, you could see any number of trash cans together and it wouldn’t be surprising.

3. Sit down together with the photos you took during the scavenger hunt. Use the guiding questions to think more deeply about the ideas of sets.

Guiding Questions

• How would the object or group be different if the number of things in the set were different? Considering the previous example, could a car have three wheels? Yes, but it would have to be designed much differently than a standard car with four wheels.

• Why do some objects exist alone or independently, without having a set?

• What things in sets can you use independently from that set (one wheel – yes, as a unicycle; one shoe, however, probably wouldn’t be very useful)

• Have you ever lost a part of a set? How did that change how you used the rest of the set? For example, a measuring cup – if you lost the “one cup” measuring cup, you could use two of the “½ cup” measuring cups. If you lost the green paint from an art set, you could use yellow and blue paint to recreate that color. Alternatively, to continue the theme of wheels, if you lost the wheel on a bike, it would be really difficult if you continued to try to use it.

• What is a pair? What things do you know that specifically get named as a “pair?” (shoes, socks, pants, mittens)

• What other words do you know that define groups or sets of things? (Note, these are called “quantifiers”: duo, twin, triplet, quartet, dozen, foot, yard)

Extensions

• As students make progress with a pair and then a trio, move to other quantities of groups of objects. Consider exploring a new quantity each day (up to groups of 12).

• On Epic, read What Comes in Sets by Minta Berry and Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss and follow the prompts on each page.

• Consider counting how many pairs of one type of thing you may have. How many pairs of socks do you have? Shoes? Can you skip count by twos to count them?