Observing diversity in cars

The diverse world of cars around us

The Red Car

There was once a little red car that couldn't start. He wanted to go. "Vrrr! Vrrrh!" He would try very hard. But he just couldn't go.

One bright morning a smart blue car came roaring by the little red car and went, "Beep! Beep! It is such a beautiful day! Why don't you come and drive beside me?"

The little red car really wanted to go with him. "Vrrr! Vrrrh!" He tried hard. "Let me try! Let me try!" He said. But he just couldn't go.

Soon after that, a big green car came rumbling by the little red car and said, "Honk! Honk! It is such a beautiful day! Why don't you come and drive beside me?"

The little red car wanted to go for the drive. "Vrrr! Vrrrh!" He tried hard. "Let me try! Let me try!" he said. But he still couldn't go. The little red car then tried EXTRA hard this time, and off he went - VROOM! VROOM!

The little red car wanted to race ahead of all on the highway, but he remembered that it is safe to race only on the race tracks. He settled into a lane and started enjoying the drive.

Every time he saw cars of different colours, he went “Beep-beep beep!”, he saw silver, blue, green, yellow, white, black and many more colours of cars. He saw many bigger and beautiful cars, but he fell in love with a yellow-coloured beetle!

The red car also saw a gleaming race car, a golden hatchback, and the flaunting convertibles, but he thought the yellow hatchback was the best. What a drive it was.

The garage door rattled and opened, and the red car woke up from his daydream. The little red car was dusted off and polished, ready in the garage as a proud baby of his masters!

Family conversation

Discuss the diversity of cars in the story and all around us

Also, discuss the colour of the family car, motorbike, or bike. Why did the family select a particular colour for the vehicle? The influences and influencers in the selection process. What do the children have to say about the colour?

Exploring a car park to experience the colourful world of cars

Visit the nearest parking lot to see the different cars there. Point out the diversity in vehicles with respect to various features, such as colours of cars, big and small cars, old and new vehicles, and the shape and model of vehicles. Some cars can seat more people, whereas others can seat fewer people. Some cars drive faster, whereas others drive slower, etc.

Discuss with children

1. How many cars are there in the parking lot? Discuss not in terms of numbers but in terms of one/pair/few/many.
   Introduce these vocabularies in context, without assigning specific sense to quantities for few/many. One and pair must also be introduced by showing physical objects and not as numbers.
2. Are all the cars of the same colour, shape and, size? Discuss the diversity of cars with respect to colour, shape and, size as found in the parking lot.
3. Is there more than one red-colour car? Find the colours of which there are just a few and those of which there are many. What seems to be the popular colour of cars in the parking lot?
4. How big is the big car compared to things inside the house like dining-table, bed, rooms?
5. How big is the smallest car compared to things inside the house like dining-table, bed, refrigerator, be arms stretched?
6. Are the cars parked in a particular way? Is there a line along which the cars are parked? Discuss the importance of orderliness and convenience in park vehicles. What would happen if cars are haphazardly parked?
7. Why do we have so much diversity when it comes to cars? Discuss the need of diversity such as the need of a large family to have a bigger car with many seats and the advantage of small cars.
8. Is a red car red all over? What other colours can you see on cars besides the colour of the paint? Why?
9. What other things do you know that comes in many colours, shapes, and sizes? Discuss the diversity around with examples of something close to children, such as, toys, clothes, pencils, books, crayons, lunch boxes, school bags, etc.
10. What are some of the ways we group cars? Discuss various ways cars can be grouped – cars of the same colour, size, model, manufacturer, etc.

Let us do it

1. Place a cross (X) on the roof of all the cars that are not parked properly in the parking lots. Discuss the rules for parking vehicles.

2. Help Minni and her father reach their car in the parking lot of a garden. But they want to take a long path to their car as they wish to enjoy the colourful garden.

3. Let us park cars correctly. Cut out () the cars and paste them in their matching parking lot.

4. Join the dots to make the car and colour it with your favourite colour for cars. You may also use mixed colours all over the car or on parts of the car. In case you did mix colours, what name you would give to the colour you created. Create a new colour by simply impose another colour on a colour.

Let us practice

1. Match the cars with their correct shadow by drawing an arrow-line (→) across the sheet.

2. Draw an arrow-line (→) across the sheet to match the cars to their outline and colour them in the same colour.

3. Which of the following is not a picture of a car? Put a rectangle ( ) around it.

4. Name each of the following means of transport.

Excerpted from the book ‘Foundations of mathematical thinking (Mathematics as a language)’ by Sandeep Srivastava and Saloni Srivastava