Sorting & Graphing with Beanie Babies

We're working on a series of lessons on sorting/classifying/graphing.** Today my student sorted Teeny Beanie Babies. After he sorted several times, he was asked to:

1. Think of a new way to sort the Beanie Babies.

2. Predict the outcome. Write a prediction statement.
"I predict the 4-legged animals will have the most."

3. Sort the Beanie Babies.

4. Write a comparison statement.
"There are nine more animals in the 4-legged group than there are in the 2-legged group." Following the lesson**, he identified and underlined the groups being compared in his sentence and circled the word "than" to show that a comparison was being made.

I keep one box of Teeny Beanie Babies, purchased at a garage sale, to use for sorting/graphing lessons.

Here he is sorting by color.

**The lessons come from Bridges, Grade 3, by The Math Learning Center. The original lessons use glyphs made by students.