1 "Today we are going to study plants and animals," announced Mrs. Kim.
2 "All of them?" asked Jordan.
3 "Why not all of them?" asked Mrs. Kim.
4 "Well, for one thing," said Molly, "there are lots and lots of animals and lots and lots of plants. I don't think we can talk about all of them."
5 "That is a big problem," said Mrs. Kim. "I wonder how we could make it a smaller problem."
6 "I know, I know," shouted Matthew. "We could break up the class into smaller groups, and each group could study different plants and animals."
7 "There's a good idea," said Mrs. Kim. "How shall we split up the class?"
8 "We could have the part of the class whose last names begin with A-M study plants and the part whose last names begin with N-Z study animals," suggested C.J.
9 "Or we could have the boys study plants and the girls study animals," added Maddie.
10 "Better yet, we could have all the people with pretty blond hair study plants and the others with dull brown hair study animals," said Sally Jo as she patted her blond curls.
11 "You have all suggested that we use some kind of characteristic to split the class," said Mrs. Kim. "A characteristic is a special feature a person or animal has."
12 "Like some people are tall and some people are short?" asked Mike.
13 "Yes, exactly," answered Mrs. Kim. "Plants, animals, and people have special features. We can sort all of these things into groups by that special characteristic. Let's play a little game. Which one of these animals does not belong with the others in the group?"
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