Collecting and comparing: a week of ready-to-teach maths

Five days of lessons for Foundation Statistics. Print this pack and the week is prepared: each day has a one-page plan and a student worksheet, plus cut-out answer cards, a mini-check and every answer.

Start here: five minutes to Monday

1. Skim the week at a glance on the next page.
2. Print the five days. Each day is two A4 sheets: a plan and a worksheet.
3. Cut out the two card sheets once; they are reused all week.
4. Open the free interactive unit on your board. Every plan tells you which picture to show and when.
5. Teach straight from the plan. Timings, talk prompts, things to watch for and answers are all on the one page.

No maths background needed

This pack is written for the busy generalist teacher. Each plan explains the idea in plain words, lists what young children muddle, and gives model answers, so you can walk in and teach it.

One day, one lesson

The five lessons fill a week of maths, one lesson of about 40 minutes a day. Run them in order: each day stands on the one before. Every lesson can also split into a short carpet session and a table task if your timetable runs small blocks.

The week at a glance

One lesson a day for a week. Each day stands on the day before, so run them in order.

How the week builds

Day 1 collects answers by asking; Day 2 sorts the answers into groups; Day 3 lines the groups up as a picture graph; Day 4 reads that graph to say which is most and least; and Day 5 runs a whole small survey from question to answer. It builds on counting and sorting from earlier in Foundation, and it opens the way to tally marks and tables in Year 1.

Materials for the week (one trip)

• From the classroom: scissors, glue or blu-tack, pencils, this pack printed.
• Handy but not needed: real objects to sort (blocks by colour, a bowl of fruit) for the warm-ups.
• Cut out once, use all week: the answer cards and the picture-graph pieces in this pack. No maths equipment to buy.

Dear families

This week in maths, Foundation is learning to collect, sort and compare data. We ask a question everyone can answer, gather the answers, sort them into groups, and make a picture graph to see which group is the biggest.

Try this at home

• Ask a family question: which fruit do we like best, or which day was the best this week? Let everyone answer.
• Sort something into groups: the washing by colour, the shoes by size, the cutlery in the drawer.
• Line the groups up so they are easy to compare, then ask: which group has the most? Which has the least?
• Look at a simple picture chart together and ask your child what it tells us.

Our week of asking

Fill one row a day. Tick when you asked a question and when you found the answer.

Printed from the free seegongsik Collecting and Comparing teaching pack · seegongsik.com/au/foundation/statistics/AC9MFST01/pack

Ask and collect

Data begins with a question we can answer by asking. Today the class picks one question everyone understands, then collects the answers one at a time, a mark for each. The big idea for a young child: we do not guess what the class likes, we ask.

We are learning to

• ask a question everyone in the class can answer,
• collect each answer with one mark,
• keep a fair record: one person, one mark.

Success criteria

• I can ask my question the same way each time.
• I can make one mark for every answer I collect.

You need

The worksheet, one per child. The fruit answer cards (cut-out sheet 1) for a class demo on the carpet. A board for the class tally.

Lesson flow (about 40 minutes)

Two half-sessions instead? End Session A after agreeing the question. Start Session B by asking around the room, then counting the marks.

Watch for these ideas

• Guessing the answer instead of asking: data is what we find out, not what we think.
• Giving one person two marks, or forgetting to mark an answer: one person, one mark.
• Changing the question halfway, so the answers no longer match.

Answers

• Your own marks vary: children collect real answers, so no two sheets are the same.
• The other class tally counts to apple 4, banana 3, orange 2.
• Apple has the most marks; orange has the fewest.

Ask and make a mark

Our question: which fruit do you like best? Ask some friends. Make one mark for each answer. Then count the marks.

My marks

Another class asked the same question

Here are their marks. Count each row and write how many.

Sort into groups

A muddled pile of answers is hard to read. Sorting means putting the same answers together, all the apples in one group, all the bananas in another. Once the data is sorted, its shape starts to show and it can be counted.

We are learning to

• put the same answers together in groups,
• count how many are in each group,
• say which group is the biggest and which is the smallest.

Success criteria

• I can sort a mixed pile into groups.
• I can count how many are in each group.

You need

The fruit answer cards (cut-out sheet 1), one set per pair. The worksheet, one per child.

Lesson flow (about 40 minutes)

Two half-sessions instead? End Session A after sorting the cards. Start Session B with the worksheet pile.

Watch for these ideas

• Leaving a stray card out of every group, so a count comes up short.
• Counting the whole pile instead of each group one at a time.
• Sorting by the wrong feature (by colour of the card, not by the fruit named).

Answers

• The pile sorts to apple 4, banana 3, orange 2 (nine cards in all).
• Apple is the biggest group; orange is the smallest.
• These are the same counts the class collected on Day 1.

Same with same

Here is a mixed pile of answers. Sort them into groups. Write each group in a box and count it.

The mixed pile

Sort into groups

Make a picture graph

Sorted groups become easy to compare once we line them up. In a picture graph we draw one picture for each answer and lay the pictures in neat rows, so the length of a row shows how many chose it. Same size, evenly spaced: that is what makes it fair to read.

We are learning to

• draw one picture for each answer in a group,
• line the groups up in rows that start together,
• keep the pictures the same size and evenly spaced.

Success criteria

• I can put one picture for each answer.
• I can line my rows up so they are fair to compare.

You need

The picture-graph pieces and blank frame (cut-out sheet 2) for building on the carpet. The worksheet, one per child.

Lesson flow (about 40 minutes)

Two half-sessions instead? End Session A after building on the carpet. Start Session B by drawing the graph.

Watch for these ideas

• Drawing the pictures different sizes, so a short row looks long.
• Leaving gaps or overlapping pictures, so the count is hard to read.
• Starting the rows at different places, so they cannot be compared at a glance.

Answers

• Apple row has 4 pictures, banana 3, orange 2.
• The apple row is the longest; the orange row is the shortest.
• Nine pictures in all, one for each answer collected.

One picture for each answer

Use your groups from yesterday: apple 4, banana 3, orange 2. Draw one picture in a box for each answer. Start every row at the left, and keep your pictures the same size.

Read your graph

The longest row is ____________. The shortest row is ____________.

Apple has ____ pictures. Orange has ____ pictures. That is ____ more apples than oranges.

Which is most?

A graph is worth making because it answers the question we started with. The longest row is the most popular; the shortest is the least. A child does not need to count every picture to see which is biggest; the lengths do the comparing.

We are learning to

• read a picture graph to find which has the most,
• find which has the least,
• count how many chose each, and how many in all.

Success criteria

• I can say which group is the most and which is the least.
• I can count how many are in a row.

You need

The worksheet, one per child. The class picture graph from Day 3 on display, if you kept it.

Lesson flow (about 40 minutes)

Two half-sessions instead? End Session A after pointing to longest and shortest. Start Session B with the reading task.

Watch for these ideas

• Picking the row with the biggest picture, not the longest row: length shows the count.
• Miscounting a row by skipping or double-counting a picture.
• Thinking most means the first row, wherever it sits: it means the longest.

Answers

• Most: apple (4). Least: orange (2). Banana: 3.
• Altogether: 9 answers.
• Apple has 2 more than orange.

Read the graph

Here is our favourite-fruit graph. Read it, then answer the questions.

What does the graph tell us?

1. Which fruit is the most? ____________

2. Which fruit is the least? ____________

3. How many chose banana? ____

4. How many children chose a fruit altogether? ____

5. How many more chose apple than orange? ____

Our class pets

Today the four skills of the week come together in one small survey. The class asks its own question, collects everyone’s answer, sorts the answers, builds a graph, and reads it to find the answer. Then the mini-check shows what each child can do.

We are learning to

• run a small survey from question to answer,
• collect, sort and graph our own data,
• read our graph to answer the question we asked.

Success criteria

• I can collect, sort and graph answers to a class question.
• I can say what our graph tells us.

You need

The worksheet, one per child. The picture-graph pieces (cut-out sheet 2). The mini-check (back of the pack), one per child.

Lesson flow (about 40 minutes)

Two half-sessions instead? Run the survey in Session A. Build and read the graph, then the mini-check, in Session B.

Watch for these ideas

• Jumping to a graph without sorting first: the groups must be made before they are drawn.
• Drawing the pictures different sizes, so the class graph misreads.
• Stopping at the graph without answering the question the class asked.

Answers

• The class survey varies: it is your own real data, so every class graph is different.
• Check the graph matches the marks: same count in each row, one picture per answer.
• Read it back as words: the most common pet in our class is the longest row.

Our class survey

Our question: which pet, dog, cat, fish or bird? Collect the answers, then make the graph.

Collect the answers

Make the graph

Draw one picture for each answer. Start every row at the left.

Answer cards

Cut out the cards. Hand them out so each child holds their answer, then collect and sort them into groups. To build the Day 2 pile, use 4 apples, 3 bananas and 2 oranges; the spare cards let you set your own questions too. One set for the class is plenty.

Teacher note: these are the same three answers the class collects on Day 1 and sorts on Day 2, so the floor activity and the worksheet match.

Picture-graph pieces

Cut out the picture tokens. Place one token for each answer to build a picture graph on the blank frame below. One token is one answer, so a longer row means more children chose it.

Picture tokens

Blank picture-graph frame

Write a group name at the start of each row, then lay one token in each box.

Teacher note: the frame is reused on Days 3, 4 and 5, so every class graph is built the same fair way.

What we know: collecting and comparing

Read the graph. Work on your own. You can point and count if you like.

1. Which game is the most popular? ____________
2. Which game did the fewest children choose? ____________
3. How many children chose the swings? ____
4. How many chose the slide? ____
5. How many chose the sandpit? ____
6. Did more children choose the swings or the slide? ____________
7. To make a pile of answers easy to read, first we ____________ them into groups.
8. Data means the answers we ____________ by asking, not answers we guess.

Answers and marking guide

All answers read from the fixed graph: swings 6, slide 4, sandpit 3 (13 children in all).

Answers

1. Swings (the longest row, 6).
2. Sandpit (the shortest row, 3).
3. 6.
4. 4.
5. 3.
6. The swings (6 is more than 4).
7. sort.
8. collect.

A quick three-level guide

Eight questions, four ideas. A child at standard reads the graph, names the most and the least, and knows data is collected and sorted.

Weekly class record

Jot a tick as you move around the room; the mini-check fills any gaps. A tick a day is plenty.

The five columns are the five days: collect, sort, graph, read, and run a survey.