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Mathematical Allsorts
An introduction to sorting systematically and finding all possibilities
Related resources
Activities for groups of children working together.
Develop mathematical discussion, logical reasoning and systematic working.
Key Stage suitability • Explanation |
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 Mathematical Allsorts
Item Ref: ACT072 |
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Mathematical Allsorts
A booklet and accompanying CD containing PDF’s of different activities, cards, grids and templates.
Children are introduced to mathematical investigations from a young age. One type of investigation is finding all the possibilities and children are encouraged to be systematic in their approach to this.
One of the difficulties they face is a lack of experience of sorting complete sets. Mathematical Allsorts is designed to fill this gap.
Mathematical Allsorts contains several sets of cards, organised in three sections:
- Allsorts 1: small sets of up to 8 cards
- Allsorts 2: medium sets of up to 27 cards
- Allsorts 3: large sets of up to 70 cards
There are also various blank grids that can be used for children to make their own sets of cards.
Children are initially given a complete set of cards from Mathematical AI/sorts to look at. Through playing with the cards they will begin to understand the 'structure' of the cards. Several of the sets have a similar structure but look different. The engines and the snowmen are structured in a similar way in that the snowmen have 3 items of clothing that vary in colour and the engines have 3 parts that vary in colour and both sets have two possible colours for these parts. Once children understand the structure using one set of cards they should be encouraged to make connections when working with the other set.
Children might then be given one of the Blank grids to try to produce all the possibilities in a given set.
The larger sets of cards in Allsorts 3 can be used for differentiating investigations where children are asked to find all the possibilities. For example if children are asked to find all the possibilities for ice-cream cones containing up to three flavours of ice-cream, some of the class may use a blank grid, but others may be given a set of cards with up to five missing. By organising the cards they can ascertain which cards are missing.
Seeing and understanding the underlying structure is important. The Structure section shows some examples of possible ways of seeing the structure of a set. Note that these a re not unique - the structure may be seen in different ways.
Addendum
Three Triangles blanks: These pages have been missed from early versions of Mathematical Allsorts. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.
