Recycling Sort: Odd One Out

Four rows of four objects make up this 2nd grade page. In each row three things share a material and the fourth does not. On the sheet shown a purple plastic spoon closes a row of glass — a jam jar, a honey jar and a milk bottle; a green leaf sits third among a glue bottle, a toothbrush and a comb; a saucepan closes a row of pepper, carrot and banana; and a glass oil bottle stands second among a bolt, a nut and a tin can. The child circles the one that is different.

No material is named anywhere on the page, which is what lifts it above the writing face. The child must find the shared property first and the exception only after, and because the things in a row are otherwise unrelated — three glass containers and a spoon, three plastic tools and a leaf — the grouping cannot be made from what they are for. Colour is no guide either: the bolt is gold, the comb orange, the spoon purple.

One sheet, four rows, four circles. The odd one moves — fourth, third, fourth, second down the page — so there is no column to follow and a child who has stopped looking will show it. In two rows it can still be reached for the wrong reason, the odd one also being the only thing you could not eat, so ask for the material every time. It is the last recycling face and the hardest; use it when the five materials are secure.