Brainstorm various ways of categorizing things, i.e., size, shape, color, theme, etc. Introduce students to one of your own personal collections and discuss your system of organization, or read a book about collecting things. Elicit responses from the students identifying their personal collections and discuss if they have a system of categorization. Ask students to think about ways of categorizing their collections. Students should be encouraged to bring their collections to class, if possible.
Students can work in groups or individually to design a categorizing system for their collections.
Since collections are of a personal nature, this activity would be most successful if the students were empowered to make this decision. Ask students to think about what municipality is most likely to have a system of categorization. No doubt, you will elicit the Library as a response. Using the Internet, introduce the students to the Dewey Decimal System. Visit The Central Library on Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York, unless your local library is currently online.