Giant Graphing
Kids like things that are the wrong size. Something about things being slightly out of place just makes kids chuckle! Enter the giant graph! Using sticky tack and name cards, ask your students about their favorite anything! Favorite subject, favorite food, favorite game! Using 3 or more choices, have each student answer the question by placing their card on the floor in the middle of your circle or stick them to the wall. This helps bring their choices to life so they can easily see and read the data. You can add number cards up the sides and the categories on the bottom to make it look like a graph!
Graphing Project
It felt like in the younger grades, kids just “got” graphs, and understood the concept of graphing and how to read graphs. It was also a break from straight numbers so that never hurts! Put your students in the role of a data scientist and design their own study. In this case, let them choose any topic and collect data from their peers, then analyze and graph their data and see how much they get into it.
They pick topics they love
They get to ask their friends their opinions
You are helping them bring math to life
This is a project. It would be a struggle to do this all in one day from my experience but the students love it every year!
On Day 1:
Start with helping them pick a topic, and discuss what a topic even is! Invite them to draw the three options on their recording sheet. For example: If a student chooses ice cream flavors, they choose to draw a vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream cone. Collect these! There are always a few students who want to take their work home but we need it!
On Day 2:
Set up a format that works for having each student ask their classmates which of their three choices is their favorite. A format that worked is having students each have a clipboard with their sheet from the previous day, and a pencil and line your students up two lines facing each other with their clipboard on the ground. Then have each student move one to the left, and choose their favorite option on the clipboard in front of them that is not theirs. Then have every student shift one more, pick their favorite on the new board, and continue until they are back at their own board. Save the sheets!
On Day 3:
Take your students step-by-step through analyzing their data. Counting the totals, Creating a bar graph, and asking and answering questions about the data they collected.
Graphing Centers
Scoop and Graph
In this center, your students scoop a manipulative into a small container like links, bears, or tiles, count how many of each color they have, and create a bar graph to represent their scoop. At the end, they decide which color had the most and least.
Roll a Graph
In this center, you students roll a number on a traditional die or 10-frame die and color the number they rolled (not the amount otherwise they’d finish too quickly!) and continue until one number wins! This center can be easily differentiated with the change in dice or number range! Bonus that it is rainbow-coded!
Spin a Graph
Similar to Roll a Graph, in Spin A Graph, students spin the spinner, and color, or cover the item they spun until they reach the top! There are lots of different mats to choose from to keep this center fresh!
No Prep Graphing Worksheets
While all of these graphing games are low or no prep, some days you just need something you can print and give to your students! These printable graphing worksheets are simple to use, just count and graph the items on the page!
Get all of the graphing games in the Graphing Centers Bundle!
Graphing Task
In this task data and graphing task, a group of students visits the Laugh-A-Lot Carnival! They vote on the games, rides, and snacks they'd like to try at the carnival. Your students tally all the votes, organize the data into a bar graph, and then answer questions about the data. This task has a first-grade version and second-grade version that increases in difficulty and the number of categories.
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