Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Pre Graphing Activity

While looking at Bear's icecream sequencing activity,
I realized it could be adapted to make a fun dice game.

Roll the die.
Count the dots.
Choose that number of icecream scoops.
Next player rolls.
Play continues until all scoops are gone.

But the best part comes after the game is over.


Lay out the icecream scoops on your playing space.
The top ones in the photo are mine; the bottom ones are Bear's.
Doesn't this remind you of a simple bar graph?

Laying them out like this lead to a nice conversation about who had the most chocolate, who had the least vanilla, what did Mommy have the most of, the least of, what did Bear have the most of, the least of, which pile of chocolate scoops was taller, shorter....

Right now, Bear will play anything if it related to icecream.
Always, always capitalize on their interests!

6 comments:

  1. As a former classroom elementary classroom teacher, I must say KUDOS to you for beginning to use graphing activities early!

    And as she ages, (since you have started mathematical concepts with her so early) you can move on to more complicated graphing speech such as comparative sentences (I have more strawberry scoops, but less vanilla scoops than chocolate scoops.

    Great idea!

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  2. You are so clever. This would never have occurred to me.

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  3. Brilliant! I love that you used these for comparisons... I'm totally going to steal this! (And give you credit, of course!) :)

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  4. ooh this is so perfect for young kids! who doesnt love ice cream yum! very creative

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  5. well, I wanted to do this, but I am so inept when it comes to drawing and cutting. Do you happen to have a source for your scoops and cone template? Thanks.

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  6. Rebekah, I found them at Making Learning Fun.

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