Grace’s Picnic Apples

Grace helped Uncle pack a picnic for a walk in the park. She put five apples on a clean cloth. “Five apples for later,” she said. Uncle brought a basket and two small food boxes.

Before they left, Uncle filled one box for Grandma and one for their neighbour. Each box needed one apple. Grace looked at the fruit. “If we give away two apples, how many will we have left?”

Grace slid one apple towards Grandma’s open box. Then she slid another towards the neighbour’s open box. “Those two are going away,” she said. She kept them apart from the apples for the picnic.

Grace counted the apples still on the cloth. “One, two, three.” Uncle nodded. “Five apples, take away two apples, leaves three apples.” They put the other two into the boxes and shut the lids.

At the park, Grace opened the picnic basket. Three apples were inside. “I thought we had five this morning,” she said. Then she remembered the boxes. “Two went to other people. Three came with us.”

A robin landed near the bench. Grace watched it hop, then set the apples in a triangle on the cloth. “They look different like this,” she said. “I will check how many there are.”

Grace touched each apple once. There were still three. She moved them into a row and counted again. Changing their places had not brought back the two apples they had given away.

“We shared some and kept some,” said Grace. “We started with five. We gave away two. We had three left.” Uncle smiled. “You remembered the whole apple story!” Then they enjoyed their picnic.