Math Journal Sundays - Pop-up Bar Graphs

We started into our Data Management unit this week. I LOVE this unit! It's so easy to integrate it into our other subjects and interests, and the students always experience a lot of success with it. And this year, our first graphing lessons really POPPED ;).

As our diagnostic activity, I gave each student a sticky note and asked them to write down all the different graph types they could think of. We posted the stickies on the board, and made a tally chart of the frequency of each type of graph. Together, we built a bar graph, and discussed all the different components of the graph. I made a large note and graph on chart paper, and students each completed their own.

The next day we turned this graph into a journal entry for our math journals ... we made pop-up bar graphs - and they turned out AWESOME!!! The kids thought this was so cool (and so did I). For time-saving purposes (and to allow for a little mastery) we used the same data as the previous day.

We discussed intervals for both graphs the next day. We completed a bar graph activity that had the students incorporating intervals into their bar graphs. I asked the students how many markers they had in their desks (can you believe one of my students had 90 markers!!!) and we collected all the data. After that, the students worked independently to complete their own graphs.

When they were finished, we had a gallery walk for our reflection. Students filled out the top half of their reflection sheets (success criteria checklist and reflection) before they went on the gallery walk. For the gallery walk, students put their completed graphs on their desks. They then walked around the classroom with their reflection sheets to come up with 3 questions / or things they noticed to ask the whole group when we reassembled. This was a lot of fun - and I LOVED some of the questions they came up with. It let to great class discussions about choosing the most appropriate scale and intervals, and how to best show the range of data on a bar graph. When they were finished their gallery walk and class discussion, students had to fill in the last part of their reflection.

My students had so much fun with these activities, I thought yours may enjoy it, too. I made up a graphing resource for these lessons and posted it at my TPT store. Creating Pop-Up Bar Graphs contains 2 different bar graph activity ideas, instructions and a template for creating the 3D model, and instructions and handout for the gallery walk and reflection. You can click on the picture below to preview it.

Creating 3D Bar Graphs

Related:Spooky Spiral Spiderwebs

I've also added a few more resources to my TPT store in the past few weeks:

Genre Question Fans - Perfect for guided reading groups, read alouds, partner reading time, genre minilessons, etc. Resource contains 80 different questions to support the reading of different genres: fictional narrative, personal narrative, poetry, persuasive text, and informative text.

Literary Question Fans - Perfect for guided reading groups, read alouds, partner reading time, reading minilessons, etc. Resource contains 80 different questions to support the reading of different literary elements: author's purpose, characterization, figurative language, point of view, and tone and mood.

Story Elements Cootie Catchers - Different cootie catchers for studying story elements: plot, setting, character, conflict, point of view, and theme. My kids LOVE using these for review after independent reading or guided reading groups.

And don't forget I have a fun little FREE Halloween Writing Activity in case you're trying to keep your kiddos busy (and productive) in the next few days. Just click below to download your own copy.