Wow! Wednesday really snuck up on this week! This week is flying by, which I guess is a good thing. I know many of you are on spring break (and many of you are WISHING you were already on Spring Break), so I hope you are relaxing and enjoying your time off! For those of you who aren’t on Spring Break yet, I hope this week is going by as quickly for you as it is for me!
This week’s topic is GRAPHING. I know there are so many great ideas out there for how to use different objects (counters, candy, cereal, etc.) to make graphing a little more fun. And, this time of year, we can use a little fun! What with Spring Break-fever and state testing (not to mention spring on the horizon), teachers need to use whatever they can to keep kids interested in learning!
Besides actually creating the graph, I think it is also important for students to know why we use certain graphs and which graph works best for which purpose. With that in mind, I created these graphs to help students see the differences. All four graphs are made using the same information (the number of points a basketball team scores in the first 10 games of their season). Use this as a conversation starter with your kids. Which graph would be better to use to easily compare the points earned in the 2nd game vs. the points earned in the 8th game? What kind of information would a line graph be good for? Why might somebody want a Horizontal Bar Graph rather than a regular Bar Graph? I like to go into this conversation without too much “script” as I like the kids to come up with the reasons and ideas for how to use each graph. Not only does it make them more likely to remember it in the future, but they also have some REALLY good ideas, some that I haven’t even thought of before!
I also have a pictograph pack sampler that you can find on my TPT page here. It includes a completed pictograph with questions for students to answer as well as a blank pictograph with directions to complete their own pictograph.
What fun graphing projects do YOU do in your classroom? If you have an idea that you would like to link up, please do so below. I can’t wait to hear your great ideas!
Until next time,
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