Laundry Fun

The children have been dipping into their extra clothing bag to change into clean and dry clothes when needed. Frequently, the children comment on the number of clothing in their bags. We decided to offer the children a data gathering experience to help them use number and data collection for a real purpose.

We began by presenting the children with this image and prompt:

What do you notice?

We encouraged the them to think about the way the clothing was sorted.

The children noticed that:

  • the labels and pictures to help us know what the items are.
  • the clothing was organised in rows and columns.
  • there were 15 items in total.

How might you use pictures, numbers, or words to show what is happening?

The children began to make their thinking visible on paper.

They gathered the clothing in their extra clothing bags, sorting and organising them to make it easy to count and document their observations.

Then, they used a graph paper to show the number of different items in the bag. Through this experience the children were able to collect information to make decisions.

The next time your family does laundry, you can sort the clothes into categories by type. Some possible prompts could be…

  • How many categories are there? Which category has the most?
  • Which has the fewest?
  • Is it different for each person in your home?

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