Graphing Ideas and Tools

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Being able to interpret graphs, charts, and tables is an essential skill for making everyday decisions. Students will be able to draw upon different situations both in and out of math class to sharpen and strengthen students' graphing skills and to point out the usefulness of presenting facts in an organized way.

Making surveys in class is a great way to start making graphs. Write a question on the board like, "What is your favorite animal?" Then, list 4 or 5 animals. Have students come up to the board and they make a tally next to their favorite animal. Once all the data is in, make a picture or bar graph of the data from the board. Make sure you add the title to the graph and talk about how important the title of a graph is when interpreting the information. Students interpret that data and compare the results. Students will love looking and interpreting the data from their classmates. Here are some more questions that you can survey your students on:

What is your favorite color?
What is your favorite lunch choice?
How do you get home?
How tall are you?
When was your birthday?
What time do you go to bed?
How many people are in your family?

I have a set of Data Task Cards that students use to make a picture graph or bar graph. The data task cards already have the title and the total amount from each category on them. The students use the data on each card to draw a bar or picture graph representing the data. The data task cards has a title to tell what it's about, a heading to tell what kinds of facts are listed, and a set of numbers or tallies to give the information. This pack has different ways to represent data. It comes with 4 categories or 5 categories, and it comes with numbers or tally marks. The numbers are small enough to not to overwhelm their thinking when making graphs which makes these perfect for 2nd-3rd graders. Here is a preview picture of the Data Task Cards:

Students can use a sheet of paper to create a graph or use the premade graph sheets included in this pack for students to write/draw the information from each task card. Students use basic math skills with small numbers they are comfortable with to complete the graphs.

I also have a set of 20 task cards of premade bar graphs. Students use the information in each bar graph to answer four questions. Students use the recording sheets to complete each task card. These are great for your math centers or during your small group time. These task cards are cute and colorful and will keep your students engaged while learning and reinforcing bar graph skills. These task cards are also great when preparing students for test prep. There are 10 task cards that show horizontal bars and 10 task cards that show vertical bars. Click the picture to learn more about these Bar Graph Task Cards.

I also have a set of 10 worksheets for younger students just learning about graphs. This pack would be perfect for 1st graders. Students use the pictures in the jar to tally, graph, and answer questions about the graph. Students will love making their graphs. These are great for beginners!

I also have mean, median, mode, and range task cards to also make graphs from. Not only can you use them for mean and mode, but you can also use them to make a picture graph or bar graph. These also show a set of data that students can interpret. These have bigger numbers on them and can be used for older students. Click the picture to read more about these task cards.