Getting a Grip on Graphing

It's the week before Thanksgiving, and we've been thankful for the cooler weather, especially during recess!

Last week we learned about representing data using dot plots by surveying the number of people in our families, creating a frequency chart, and then graphing on the number line.  We used a bingo blotter to create the dots (the kids LOVED that part!).  The students then practiced with a partner by rolling dice 20 times, collecting the data and creating their own dot plots. (Find the activity from Math Adventures on TpT here.)

Our completed dot plot

Rolling the dice to create dot plots

We're also wrapping up our weather unit and practicing our graphing skills at the same time. The students have been collecting weather data on a selected city for three weeks using accuweather.com.
As a class, we created a pictograph, bar graph, and dot plot for our hometown data:

 Then the students created graphs for the cities they researched.  Here are some of our examples:

We used our data to make conclusions about how geography affects weather and looked for trends over time. The students have worked hard and learned a lot during this unit, and are ready to continue our adventures after Thanksgiving break.

I am so thankful for my sweet and fabulous students!  Can't wait to see what other amazing things they do this year.

Have a FANTASTIC day!

Weathering Addition and Subtraction

What to do on a rainy Wednesday - write a new blog post of course!

A new quarter is upon us, and we are beginning our unit on Weather, starting with a review of the Water Cycle.  We worked together to make an awesome anchor chart to remember our vocabulary, then kept it going with the "Water Cycle Boogie" (see video below, you won't be able to stop singing!).

With Halloween last week, we spent our workstation time practicing our addition, subtraction and place value strategies with some Halloween Math Centers (from TpT).  The students enjoyed collaborating with each other to solve word problems using strip diagrams, classifying numbers by place value, and practicing addition and subtraction algorithms and mental math strategies.  Here are some of our third graders working and learning together:

We ended the week by reviewing modeling part-part-whole word problems using strip diagrams:

The students then used those strategies to create comic strips illustrating an addition or subtraction problem.

The students had a great time sharing their stories, and are becoming fantastic problem solvers!

Have a FANTASTIC day!