Introduction to Graphing

Curriculum Goal

Describe, sort, classify, build, and compare two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional figures, and describe the location and movement of objects through investigation (#17).

Students should be standing on one side of the carpet.
Students should have a good understanding of sorting by characteristics and should have done “Sorting Apples” lesson, which includes making a graph.

Tell students you will be sorting them by characteristics and that their job is to find out what characteristics you are sorting by.
Choose a characteristic (e.g. hair colour) and begin to sort children in columns. If you are sorting by hair colour, you might have three different columns – brown, blond and black.
Ask children what characteristic you have sorted by.
Then ask children to sit in a circle and take off their shoes.
Put the shoes in a big pile.
Ask, Is it easy to count the shoes when they are in a big pile? Listen to their feedback.
Put the shoes in a straight line.
Ask Is it easier to count the shoes when they are in a straight line? Listen for feedback.
Have students sort their own shoes using different characteristics (e.g. colour, size).
Children will take turns putting their own shoes in the appropriate column.

Do children understand the purpose of sorting?
Can students pick characteristics to sort by?
Do they make any comments about the data (e.g. most people in the class have black hair)

Review the components of a graph and chart the data together as a class.