Graphs, graphs and more graphs!

This post will mostly be made up of pictures, but I just wanted to showcase all of the graphs we have been creating this week!  We started off by practicing with tally marks and tally charts, and then transitioned into bar graphs, bar-type graphs and picture graphs!

Our new math curriculum has a section for Common Misconceptions and even I learned something!!

"Some students may think that a bar-type graph is the same as a bar graph.  Bar-type graphs have bars divided into individual cells to demonstrate one-to-one correspondence for each piece of data, whereas bar graphs have solid bars to demonstrate the total quantity for that category."

It all makes sense of course, but I've just never seen it written out an explained into such detail!  Duh!  We did our best to cover both bar graphs and bar-type graphs!  :)

We used this freebie from Susan Pickens to review tally marks and create a bar-type graph.  It worked perfectly!

We also created a new class graph or chart each day and discussed what we noticed on each graph. 

The TEKS for this say-

(8)  Data analysis. The student applies mathematical process standards to organize data to make it useful for interpreting information and solving problems. The student is expected to:

(A)  collect, sort, and organize data in up to three categories using models/representations such as tally marks or T-charts;

(B)  use data to create picture and bar-type graphs; and

(C)  draw conclusions and generate and answer questions using information from picture and bar-type graphs.

I was extremely proud of my class and the observations they were making!  At first, they noticed which part was greater, which got the least votes, if any sections were equal and other things like that.  Then they started comparing the sections and saying things like "If elephants had 1 more, it would be equal to the frogs." "We need one more M&M to be the same as vanilla."  It was awesome!!

Oh, and I let them name all of the graphs and they were cracking me up!!  I would take suggestions from the class and then we'd vote between two of them.  We quite a range of basic titles like "The Pet Graph" on a graph of unique animals we'd choose to have as a pet and then some funny ones like "The Stuff That People Like" on a graph of our favorite school subjects.  Haha!

"The Pet Graph"

"Our Boys and Girls Counting Graph"

"The Ice Cream Graph"

"The Stuff That People Like"

We Love Cakes!

"Cookie War"

"The Shirt Color Graph"

A little girl in my class wanted to name every graph "We Love ____" and suggested it every time!  "We Love Cakes!"   "We Love Pets!"   "We Love Shirts!"  :)   After "Cookie War" won for the name of our tally chart, a little boy suggested a similar title for the rest of the week- "Pet War"  "Cake War"  "Ice Cream War"...he really wanted it to win every time!

It was a fun week!