What better way to engage children in a math lesson than by talking about ice cream? Using a pocket chart or piece of chart paper, the class works together creating a bar graph of the their favorite ice cream flavors. Learners then work collaboratively in small groups answering a series of questions about the data they collected, referring to the graph to support their answers. Repeat this fun math activity on a daily or weekly basis, asking higher-level questions as the class become more comfortable with interpreting graphs.

Concepts

bar graphs, graphs, data analysis, data collection, graphing data, graphing

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Additional Tags

bar graph, analyzing data, data analysis, recording data, graphing data, interpretting data, interpretting graphs, math

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Pros

• Lesson includes both whole-class and small-group discussions, encouraging the meaningful participation of all students
• Sample sentence frames are provided for supporting ELLs with using academic language
• Includes sample questions to use when asking learners to analyze the bar graph
• Offers additional survey questions to use for creating a class bar graph

Cons

• Teacher must prepare square pieces of colored paper and sentence frames prior to the lesson

Common Core

1.MD.C.4 MP3 MP6