CLASSIFYING AND SORTING DATA

PEOPLE GRAPHS

WHAT COLOUR ARE YOUR EYES?

HOW DID YOU GET TO SCHOOL?

ONGOING ACTIVITIES
 
 

CLASSIFYING AND SORTING DATA
 

• Arrange lunchboxes into different lines, e.g. by colour, soft or hard-sided, pictures or no pictures

• Students may be asked to bring in a stuffed bear during a thematic unit on bears.  The stuffed animals could be sorted into “brown bears” and “not brown bears”, etc. and placed on a floor graphing mat.

• Students can sort footwear into various categories using hula hoops, e.g. laces, buckles, Velcro. Ask students to sort footwear into various categories, e.g. laces, buckles, Velcro.  This could be done concretely using hula hoops, as a “people” graph, pictorially, etc.  Have children attempt to predict the results before data is organized.

OUTCOMES:
F1:  collect and organize data about issues of personal interest
F3:  interpret and create real and picture graphs
 
 

PEOPLE GRAPHS

Ask the children to arrange themselves in two lines according to a sorting rule (wearing shoes with laces/without laces; curly/straight hair; wearing/not wearing a sweater). Allow the children to form the lines themselves; i.e. do not instruct them to line up in a one-to-one correspondence at first. They will learn that it does matter where they start and that they are lined up one-to-one.  An easy way for children to do this is to join hands with a partner from the other line.  Ask, “How many don’t have partners? What does that tell us?”

OUTCOMES:
F1:  collect and organize data about issues of personal interest
F2:  form and interpret “people” graphs
 
 

WHAT COLOUR ARE YOUR EYES?

MATERIALS:  colour blocks, mirrors, graphing chart, a picture of a pair of eyes

In a circle, invite the children to observe the eye colours of children sitting close to them. Ask, “How many different eye colours do you think there are in this class? What colour of eyes do you think most people have?”  Have each child select a block to match his or her eye colour (as closely as possible). Then ask all of the children with blue eyes to line up their blocks on the floor. Repeat for green eyes, brown eyes, and so on.  Encourage the children to interpret the concrete graph of blocks representing eye colour.

Show the children how to transfer the concrete data on the floor to make a pictograph. Invite students to colour the picture of two eyes to match their own colour.  Each child will be asked to bring his/her picture forward to be added to the graph (oriented either horizontally or vertically). Discuss the graph and summarize the children’s comments on chart paper.

OUTCOMES:
F1:  collect and organize data about issues of personal interest
F3:  interpret and create real and picture graphs
 
 

HOW DID YOU GET TO SCHOOL?

MATERIALS:  The Wheels on the Bus by Maryann Kovalski, grid paper, floor graphing mat, piece of paper with name

If possible, introduce this activity by singing the song and sharing the book The Wheels on the Bus. Encourage the children to talk about their own experiences on buses. Ask, “How did you get to school?”  Discuss all the modes of transportation used by the children (e.g. walk, bicycle, bus, car).  Invite each child to take a position on the graphing floor mat in the column for the mode of transportation he or she used today. Have children mark their spot with a piece of paper with their name on it.  As a class, construct a pictograph to represent the information on the graphing mat.  Encourage the children to comment on and interpret the graph. Ask, “Do you think the graph would be the same every day?”  Ask, “If another class in the school made a graph about how they got to school, do you think it would look like this one?”  Discuss.  Invite another class to do a graph.  If possible, combine the two classes to compare and discuss the graphs.

OUTCOMES:
F1:  collect and organize data about issues of personal interest
F2:  form and interpret “people” graphs
F3:  interpret and create real and picture graphs
 

* Adapted from:   Interactions, Unit 2: Making Sense of Data, p. 88