I have really slacked on this blog. Sorry!
One part of my morning routine is to have students vote on a daily question as they walk in the door. Then when we are doing calendar, we turn this vote into a graph. It allows us to practice a variety of graphs and tables all year long as well as answering questions about the graphs and the data. It could even be used as a springboard for persuasive writing.
Students use clothesline pins to vote. (Although I do occasionally switch things up a bit and try some other ways to vote.) There are usually 2-4 choices. Then I use their votes to create a graph...bar graphs, line plots, charts, or pictographs as these are the types of graphs we study in second grade. During calendar, I show the students the graph and ask them questions. Do more students like turkey or ham? How many fewer students ate cereal than ate eggs for breakfast? How many students like turkey and ham altogether? and so on.
The students enjoy it. We enjoy seeing what is popular in our classroom, and it is a great way to practice graphing on a daily basis.
Then at the end of the month, I bind that month's graphs together into a class book that students can read over and over again for the rest of the year.
