Ordinality

As we have discussed, if a student does not understand ordinality, they will struggle with any ideas that involve sets and groupings. Here is a simple middle school and high school level activity that can help reaffirm a student's understanding of ordinality from the book //Exploring Math with Books Kids Love://
 * Making Ordinality Make Sense! **

**Venn Diagrams** " On the copies of //Math Curse// that have book jackets, a Venn diagram visually illustrates which books Scieszka and Smith have written together. Venn diagrams can show that separate groups have something in common or nothing in common.

1. Draw a Venn diagram for the following statement:  Some birds are tame. (B = {bird}; T = {tame animals})

2. Draw a Venn diagram for the following statement:  No giraffe wears kneepads. ( G=giraffes}; K = {kneepad wearers})

3. Draw the Venn diagram for the following statement:  Some fruits are speckled. (F = {fruits}; S= {speckled things}) "

Now, have students come up with examples for each and put them in a cumulative list. Next, have students insert their answers into the Venn diagrams and see if they count the same numbers of examples whether it is in the Venn diagram or the list. If they do not, use Socratic questioning to demonstrate where they have double counted. This also serves as a good pre-assessment activity.

Source: Kaczmarski, K. //Exploring Math with Books Kids Love.// (1998). Fulcrum Resources. Golden, Colorado.