Concrete Graphs Using One-to-One Correspondence
Warm-up
Display a ready-made concrete graph (weather for the week). Ask Level 1: How many sunny days? Level 2: How many more sunny than rainy? Level 3: What does this graph tell us about our week? Run through all three levels quickly to establish the expectation.
Explore
Class survey: what is your favourite season? Each student places one cube in their column. In table groups, students work through a question card set ranging from Level 1 to Level 3. Groups share answers and compare reasoning.
Consolidate
Practice
Students pose their own survey question, survey 6 classmates, build a concrete graph, and write 2 sentences about what they found. Exit ticket: teacher points to two columns and students write one comparison sentence.
Exit ticket
Students pose their own survey question, survey 6 classmates, build a concrete graph, and write 2 sentences about what they found. Exit ticket: teacher points to two columns and students write one comparison sentence.
8 minus 3 equals 5. Five more students prefer summer. Alternatively: count up from 3 to 8 on the graph. That is 5 cubes difference. Both approaches are valid.
The graph tells us that more people in our class prefer summer. Does that mean summer IS better? No: the graph describes preferences, not facts about seasons. This introduces the idea that data represents opinion, not objective truth.