Grade 3: Science

What doesn’t belong?

Classification is a core skill in elementary school science. Play this game with your child to help them strengthen their categorizing skills by comparing, contrasting, and observing.  Remind your child that you can categorize using attributes like shape, color, size, texture, living or nonliving, etc. Then help them put their knowledge to use.

Gather a group of objects and put them in the box.  The goal of the game is to have your child guess the object that doesn’t belong to the group. Model one round for your child. Select a ball, a rock, a leaf, and a flower. Pretend you’re guessing which of the items don’t belong. Start by listing all the things the objects have in common and then all they ways they’re different. Think aloud so that your child can hear your thought process. For example, you might say:

• “I found all these objects outside, so they have that in common.”
• “The leaf and flower come can be found on plants, but not the ball and the rock.”
• “The rock and the ball are both round, but the leaf and flower are different shapes.”
• “The objects are all different sizes, so I can’t use that to decide.”
• “The rock, flower, and leaf all came from nature, but the ball didn’t.”
   So, the ball doesn’t belong.

Take turns with your child selecting four or five objects and guessing which of the objects don’t belong. Encourage your child to think aloud, and to use these questions as a guide:

• Do the objects have similar colors?
• Do they have similar shapes?
• Do the objects have similar sizes?
• Where do the objects come from?
• Are the objects living or nonliving?

For each round, encourage your child to find a different way to categorize the objects. Work with your child to think of other questions that might help them categorize.