One might not realize how much joy can be found in some bits of plastic garbage, but I can confirm it.
Forty minutes of sweet, sweet quiet this gave me. Both kids played, dividing them into stacks of different colours, shapes, sizes, and marble-fun capabilities (can you make the marble circle around the inside of the lid over and over?). Of course, it all ended abruptly with an argument over whose lids were whose, but I before that point, I was convinced I was a genius. This is something that worried me about homeschooling, not my quantity of genius-like moments ;), but those little things that I remember about my primary years that made the experience enjoyable. For me, those little whispers of joy came from jars of bread tags, colourful paperclips, baskets of pinecones, sparkles, and other things we could use to create some magic, something we could become artists with, or even use to make math more colourful. And that is exactly what we used them for today. Drawing inspiration from something I saw here, we took a crack it this…
Graphing Data
You will need: Counters
Graph paper
Markers or Crayons for Colouring
Start by asking your child how she could divide the counters into groups. She may need some prompting and you can suggest dividing by size, colour, etc., but she may surprise you and suggest her own ways: frozen colours, ugly colours, and pink. Let her run with it; it will help to keep her interested.
If your counters are small enough, have your child actually place the bits in each square so that she can visualize which column is larger. We also tried this project with beans from our garden.
One column at a time, start colouring, explaining that each square represents one bean. Once your chart is coloured, teach your child to label and title their graph. Take some time to talk about your discoveries together. Which kind of bean do we have the most of? Do we have more big lids or small lids?
The possibilities are endless…Next. we’ll discuss each block representing several beans/sparkles/ice cubes…you name it.
happy graphing,
HayMama
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