Skills:         comparing                           counting
                   recording                            diversity

Materials:    graph paper or poster board, markers, crayons

Directions:   Draw off grids on poster board and use for some of these graphing activities:

                      eye color, hair, etc.         brothers and sisters
                      letters in name                books read
                      birthday month                favorite flavor of ice cream
                      favorite pet                      favorite book, author
                      favorite game                  favorite sports team
                      favorite song, rhyme       teeth lost
                      transportation to school  favorite center        
                      weather                           color of jelly beans in a bag
                      type of shoe                    relate to a unit of study

Adaptations:  You can also do “people” graphs where children sort into groups based on a particular attribute.

Mount photographs of children on 4” x 4” squares.  Have children use their pictures for graphing activities.

Expose children to line graphs, picture graphs, bar graphs, pie graphs, and other visual representations.

Glyphs

Skills:         math concepts                  reading skills
                  decoding                           small motor skills
                  problem solving                diversity

Materials:   crayons, markers, construction paper, glue, scissors, etc.

Directions:   Give each child a cutout of a teddy bear.  (See the “Gummy Bear” song for the pattern.)  *Write directions similar to those attached on a language experience chart. (Click here to download.) Read the directions step-by-step as the children create their “personalized” bear.

Adaptations:   Turkeys, pumpkins, gingerbread boys, trees, dinosaurs, space aliens, fish, and almost any seasonal object can be used for making glyphs.

Hint!   Hang the bears on a bulletin board or in the hall with the code.

           Can children play detective and decode who made each bear?

Data Collectors

Skills:         comparisons

Materials:   corrugated cardboard cut in 12” x 9” rectangles, butterfly clip, paper

Directions:    Make clipboards by attaching paper to the cardboard rectangles with the butterfly clip.  Next, have children make a T-chart on their clip boards and collect “data.”  Let them decide what they would like to collect data on.  You could tie it in with a unit (Do you like dogs or cats?), sports events (Who will win March Madness?), favorite food (Do you like cheese pizza or pepperoni?), and so on.   Children collect their data on the bus, in their home, neighborhood etc.  When they bring their data back to school, tally results on the board.

Guess and Check

Skills:         estimation

Materials:   zip bags, paper, pencils

Directions:  Let each child take a bag home and fill it with a number of objects.  (Give them parameters for this, such as 1-10 or 1-25.)  Number each of their bags.  Classmates write down the number of the bag and then write down their estimation (“guess”) of how many objects are in the bag.  Next, they open the bags, count, and write down the correct amount (“check”).

Adaptations:   Fill a plastic bottle or jar with different objects each day. Place small pieces of paper and a pencil by the “estimation jar.” Sometime during the day ask students to write their name and estimation on a piece of paper.  At the end of the day, empty the container and count.  Who guessed the closest amount?  Who guessed more?  Who guessed less?