LOGICAL THINKING - Grade 2
Lesson 2 of 8
Activity 1
Today we will learn how to organize things that are alike and different. Read this story aloud:
One bright afternoon, Randy the Raccoon, a curious scientist with a white lab coat and shiny round glasses, strolled down to the pond with his notebook in paw. Detective Daisy Duck waddled beside him, her magnifying glass bouncing from her wing as she walked. They made quite the pair: Randy always thinking about experiments and discoveries, and Daisy always looking for mysteries to solve.
As they came to the edge of the pond, Randy stopped.
“Look over there, Daisy,” he said, pointing with his paw.
Two young people were sitting by the water. A boy was skipping stones across the surface, and a girl was sketching in her notebook. The sunlight danced on the water, and frogs croaked lazily nearby.
“I see them,” Daisy whispered. She raised her magnifying glass dramatically, even though it wasn’t really necessary. “Hmm… suspects? Or just pond visitors?”
Randy chuckled. “Not suspects, Daisy. Observations. Let’s see what we can notice.”
Randy adjusted his glasses and scribbled in his notebook.
“The boy,” he said carefully, “has black hair, short hair, no glasses, a red shirt, blue jeans, and white shoes.”
Daisy nodded and made her own report in her detective’s notebook.
“The girl has brown hair, long hair, glasses, a yellow shirt, blue jeans, and white shoes.”
Daisy tilted her head. “Interesting! They’re alike in some ways and different in others.”
“Exactly!” Randy’s tail twitched with excitement. “That’s how scientists think, too. We look for similarities and differences. And do you know what tool is perfect for that?”
Daisy tapped her beak. “A magnifying glass?”
Randy laughed. “No, no. A Venn diagram!”
Daisy blinked. “A… what diagram?”
“A Venn diagram,” Randy explained, drawing two big overlapping circles in the dirt with a stick. “It’s a way to compare two things. One circle shows what belongs to one person, the other circle shows what belongs to the other, and the middle part—the part that overlaps—shows what they share.”
Daisy leaned closer. “So it’s like detective work for finding common clues?”
“Exactly!” Randy smiled. “Scientists and detectives aren’t so different after all.”
Randy began to write labels at the top of each circle.
“This circle is for the boy,” he said, patting the left circle. “And this circle is for the girl.”
He started with the boy’s traits.
“Boy: black hair, short hair, no glasses, red shirt.”
Daisy eagerly added to the girl’s side.
“Girl: brown hair, long hair, glasses, yellow shirt.”
Then Randy tapped the middle section where the circles overlapped. “Now, what do they both have?”
Daisy looked carefully at the children by the pond. “They’re both wearing blue jeans!”
“And white shoes,” Randy added.
They wrote blue jeans and white shoes right in the middle.
Daisy’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, I get it now! A Venn diagram shows us how people are unique and how they’re the same. The middle is like the pond itself—where everything comes together.”
Randy grinned. “Perfectly said, Detective. That’s the beauty of it. A Venn diagram helps us see connections at a glance.”
The two friends stood back and admired their drawing in the dirt.
