BFSU Sample Lesson

All lessons in BFSU follow the same format and sequence of sections seen in this sample.

Lesson A/B-1

Organizing Things Into Categories

 

Overview:

The ability to organize is a life skill of such major importance that it hardly needs mentioning. As well as physically sorting items into categories, it includes a way of thinking that is tantamount to clear, logical reasoning. This lesson will bring children to recognize how organizing and placing things into categories is used in many aspects of everyday life. It will further lay a critical foundation as it sets children on a path of organized thinking.

Time Required:

Introductory discussion (10-15 minutes)
Recalling and noting examples at various times when and where organization is conspicuous (3-5 minutes per occasion)
Games/activities (20-30 minutes as desired)

Objectives: Through this exercise, students will be able to:

1. Recognize and use the following words in their proper context: ORGANIZE, ORGANIZATION, CATEGORY(IES).

2. Recognize and describe how items are arranged in categories in homes, stores, libraries, and other situations in everyday life.

3. Use organization in thinking/memory exercises.

4. Recognize how different purposes may require different systems of organization.

5. Organize an assortment of miscellany into logical categories according to different criteria.

6. Older children should demonstrate organizational skill in their everyday lives, as well as in thinking and writing reports.

Required Background: No special background is required.

 Materials:

No special items or equipment are required for this lesson. It will involve simply noting the organization that is conspicuous in homes, stores, libraries, and other situations.

An assortment of miscellaneous items from “junk” drawers or closets may be used for various activities and assessment.

Teachable Moments:

Teachable moments will occur as you show children how your classroom is arranged and where various things are kept and as you introduce and children to the school library and media center. Cleaning up, sorting things out, and putting things away offer additional teachable moments. Parents/caregivers will find teachable moments in any visit to a supermarket or department store.

Methods and Procedures:

In pointing out and explaining to students how your classroom is arranged, introduce them to and use the words ORGANIZE(D) and CATEGORY(IES). For example, you might say: Let’s look at the way I have our room ORGANIZED; that is, arranged. The first CATEGORY, or kind of things, is books. They are all kept on the shelves here. The second CATEGORY is art and drawing supplies; they are kept in the cabinets here, and so on, as suits your particular room.

Similarly, on visiting the school library and media center, state that you want them to see how it is ORGANIZED. K through grade 1 books are one CATEGORY; they are here. The CATEGORY of video discs is there, etc.

In Q and A discussion, have children reflect on the CATEGORIES of things in their home bedrooms and how they are ORGANIZED. Coach them as necessary in citing categories; clothing, toys, books, shoes, and how they are kept (supposed to be kept) each in its particular chest of drawers, closet, open shelves, and so on.

On subsequent occasions, have children visualize their home kitchens, name the CATEGORIES of things kept there (dishes, eating utensils, pots and pans, food stuffs, etc.) and how they are ORGANIZED, each kept in particular drawers and cabinets. Likewise, you may have children visualize a familiar supermarket, recall, and name categories (fresh produce, fresh meats, breakfast cereals, canned goods) and how the store is ORGANIZED so that each category is in a particular section.

Note that what students may cite as a category may be quite variable and still be correct. The key point for all to understand is that a category includes two or more different items that share a certain similarity or purpose. Most categories can be subdivided into more specific categories, and/or different categories may often be combined into a single larger category. For example, the category of fresh produce might be divided into subcategories: fruits, vegetables. Or, fresh produce may be combined with other foodstuffs into the single category we call groceries.

As children master the meaning and concept of categories and organization, use Q and A discussion to have them ponder its purpose and usefulness. Why do we put things in categories and organized them accordingly? If necessary, they may be prompted, “How would customers in a supermarket find things if they were not arranged in categories? How would the store manager be able to keep track of what items needed to be restocked if they were not organized?” Encourage children to look for and cite additional examples of how things are organized according to categories.

The following activity is an excellent way to have children exercise and demonstrate their organizational skills. For each individual or small group, prepare an assortment of miscellaneous items from around the room/home: various sorts of pencils/markers, scraps of different colored paper and cloth, play things, books, buttons, beads, string/cord, paper clips, staples, thumbtacks, etc., whatever is handy. The challenge for each student/group is to sort their miscellany into categories.

Again, it will be evident that the same miscellany may be sorted according to different criteria: color, size, use, material from which it is made, or other. It is advantageous to let students choose among themselves how they will sort their miscellany, but they may need input in resolving disputes that arise. Hopefully different groups will choose alternative criteria. Then at the end, each group can give a show-and-tell describing the criterion used for sorting and the resulting categories. Again, students should be impressed that there is no single right way to do it.

Making Categories and Organization into a Way of Thinking

Here is the fundamental purpose behind categorization and organization that should be made clear to children. Human brains are simply incapable of handling a lot of different things at the same time. The discordant information may be tucked away in our minds, but it is often impossible to get it out unless it is organized into certain patterns of thought. Without organization, many bits of information may be simply lost and forgotten. Learning, recall, and thought are greatly enhanced by organization.

A game that both children and adults enjoy and which demonstrates this principle is the following. Twenty miscellaneous items from around the house are placed on a tray. People are allowed to look at the tray for a total of 60 seconds; then the tray is removed or covered and each person lists as many of the items as they can in two minutes. The problem most people confront is that the mind gets stuck on one or two items and other items are lost from immediate recall.

There is a secret to developing greater success at this game, and you can help children learn the secret. It is to mentally sort things into categories. For example, there may be utensils from the kitchen, items from a desktop, an assortment of small toys, and some coins. By mentally putting the things in categories, one reduces the number of things one must recall directly. Assign the categories to the fingers of your hand. Then, as you recall the categories from your fingers, most if not all the associated items in each category will be remembered as well.

We are often awed by “memory experts” who demonstrate their skill on shows. Indeed, they may have remarkable minds, but they have also developed the skill of making associations among all the bits of information. That is, they organize the bits into patterns that make recall easier. 

Such games/activities will emphasize, again, that there is no single right way to organize things. The choice will be according to purpose at hand. Kids generally enjoy challenges of sorting the same miscellany according to different criteria.

The final objective of this lesson, which will be ongoing, is to have kids look for and find the overall pattern of organization in any subject they address. Coach them as necessary in achieving this objective. Once they recognize the overall pattern of organization, further learning, to say nothing of recall, will be greatly enhanced. 

As students progress, organized thinking should gradually become a habit of mind. For example, writing a report is a task that overwhelms many students. A large part of the feeling of overwhelm is because all the ideas tend to bounce around like the balls in a random number drawing machine. You will need to coach students that the first step is to jot down thoughts and ideas as they occur. Then it is a matter of sorting them into categories, arranging the categories, and fleshing them out.

But let children know that any given organization is not cast in stone. Changing organizational structures to better meet the challenges at hand is an ongoing activity of humans. Making changes does not diminish the importance of organizational skills.

Questions/Discussion/Activities To Review, Reinforce, Expand, and Assess Learning:

Continue to use the words CATEGORY(IES) and ORGANIZATION as they apply in every day situations. For example, in cleaning up after an activity or at the end of the day, say, “Let’s get the room ORGANIZED; put everything back in its proper CATEGORY.” Incidentally, assigning individual students to pick up and put away a given category of items will avoid their crowding and pushing at storage locations. 

Encourage children to notice how items are organized and/or displayed in categories in various stores, zoos, museums, and other places they may visit. Have children share these observations/experiences in ensuing classes or small group discussions. In each case, have students describe how items are grouped into categories and displayed in given locations.

In small groups, have children take turns organizing the same set of miscellanea according to different criteria: color, use, material from which it is made, etc.

 

To Parents and Others Providing Support:

In addition to reviewing and repeating any of the games/activities described above it will be helpful to:

While in any store, call your children’s attention to how similar items are grouped into CATEGORIES and displayed in certain locations. As children gain the concept, ask them to describe the organization that they observe in an unfamiliar store, library, museum, or other location.

Enlist children’s support in sorting laundry into certain categories and putting it away accordingly.

Coach children to organize things in their rooms into categories and put them away accordingly. (Let children have a say in how the organization is done.)

Cleaning out a messy closet or drawer offers a practical exercise in sorting things into categories and organizing each to a given location. Discuss this with your children as you help them do it.

At bedtime, in addition to other routines you may have, reminisce about the day’s activities. To aid recall, coach your child in terms of thinking of things in categories: fun and games, meal times, learning activities, etc.

For older children facing the writing of a report, coach them in first putting down ideas and organizing them into categories.

Connections To Other Topics And Follow Up To Higher Levels:

Organizational skills introduced here will come into play and be reinforced in many lessons that follow, particularly: A-2, “Solids, Liquids, and Gases;” A-5, “Distinguishing Materials;” B-2, “Living, Natural Nonliving, and Human-made Things;” B-4A, “Identification of Living Things.”

Food groups and nutrition provide another practical and important application of organization. Stress how foods are divided into categories, the basic food groups. Stress the nutritional importance of each, and the nutritional risks of too much of that category known as “junk foods.”

Again, organizational ability is a life-skill that can and should be applied to anything collected and to any topic addressed including business, social, and governmental organizations.

Re: National Science Education (NSE) Standards

This lesson is a steppingstone toward developing students’ understanding and abilities aligned with NSE, K-4:
Unifying Concepts and Processes
• Systems, order, and organization

Books for Correlated Reading:

Marks, Jennifer L.  Sorting by Color.  Capstone Press, 2007.
__________.  Sorting by Size.  Capstone Press, 2007.
__________.  Sorting Money.  Capstone Press, 2007.
__________.  Sorting Toys.  Capstone Press, 2007.

Pluckrose, Henry Arthur.  Sorting (Math Counts).Children’s Press, 1995.

Priddy, Roger.  Counting Colors. Priddy Books, 2004.

Wong, Nicole.  “L” Is for Library.  Upstart Books, 2006.