• Observe students as they work together on the Pizza for Lunch activity (M-2-6-3_Pizza For Lunch and KEY.docxr).
• Use the Leaves Collected Graphs activity to formally assess student understanding of picture graphs and line plots (M-2-6-3_ Leaves Collected Graphs.docx).

Make enough copies of the Ice Cream Cones sheet so each student has one cone (M-2-6-3_Ice Cream Cones.docx).

Read the poem “Eighteen Flavors” by Shel Silverstein to students. (The poem can be found in the Shel Silverstein’s book Where the Sidewalk Ends. You may find a copy of the poem on the Internet as well.)

Summary of the poem “Eighteen Flavors”: It is a tragic poem about an ice cream cone made with eighteen flavors of ice cream that lands on the ground, but it is written with the clever wit Shel Silverstein is known for.

“Today we are going to gather data about our favorite ice cream flavors. What are your favorite flavors of ice cream?” Ask students to name their favorite flavors of ice cream, likely to include chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and possibly others. Once you have a list of the favorites of your students, write the flavors on the board as shown. For example:

Give each student an ice cream cone cut from the Ice Cream Cones page (M-2-6-3_Ice Cream Cones.docx). Ask students to come forward one by one to tape their ice cream cone on the graph, indicating their favorite flavor of ice cream. (Give students a piece of tape as they come forward, so they can tape their ice cream cone to the board.) When the graph is finished, explain to students that this kind of graph is called a picture graph, as it uses pictures (of ice cream cones) instead of bars to represent how many people like each flavor of ice cream.

Ask students to interpret the data on the picture graph made with ice cream cones. Sample questions may include

• “Which is the favorite flavor of ice cream for our class?”
• “How many more people chose chocolate than strawberry as their favorite flavor?”
• “How many people did NOT choose bubble gum as their favorite?”

Ask questions until you think students are ready for the next activity. Do not erase the ice cream cone picture graph, as you will want to refer to it in the next activity.

Line Plots

“We have learned about bar graphs and picture graphs. Now we are going to learn about one more type of graph, a line plot. This graph does not use bars and it does not use pictures. It uses the letter X instead.”

Write the favorite ice cream flavors on the board again, as shown. For example:

“We are going to record our favorite flavors of ice cream again. This time we will make a line plot. When you come to the board, I want you to write an X above your favorite flavor of ice cream. You MUST choose the same flavor as you did for our picture graph.”

Hand a marker to students as they come to the board one by one. Help students write an X above their favorite flavor as shown here. For example:

When students are finished, remind them that this graph is called a line plot. Ask students to compare the picture graph and the line plot, both representing the favorite ice cream flavors. Sample questions may include

• “How many people chose vanilla as their favorite flavor? How do you know this when looking at the picture graph? How do you know this when looking at the line plot?”
• “Do both graphs show the same data?”
• “What do you notice that is the same in both graphs?”
• “What do you notice that is different?”

Help students recognize the only difference between these two graphs is that the picture graph uses ice cream cones to represent the favorite flavor of each person and the line plot uses an X. You may even choose to show the corresponding bar graph, so students can then compare all three—bar graph, picture graph, and line plot.

Distribute the Pizza for Lunch sheet (M-2-6-3_Pizza For Lunch and KEY.docx) to each student. Ask students to look at the picture graph with you.

“In our picture graph for Favorite Ice Cream Flavors, each ice cream cone represented one person. In some picture graphs, the picture represents more than one person. Look at the slice of pizza in this picture graph. How many people does each slice of pizza represent?”

Help students locate the Key below the picture graph. “Below the graph, there is a slice of pizza. This says one slice of pizza represents three people. How many people ate cheese pizza for lunch? Discuss this with your neighbor.” Allow students enough time to discuss this with their neighbor. Some students may just count the slices of pizza, not using the fact that one slice represents three people. Other students will count by threes to determine how many people are represented. Listen to the discussions, and ask students to explain how they decided how many people ate cheese pizza. Ask students to work together in pairs to complete the page. Notice, students will be asked to construct a line plot using the pizza data. When the class is finished, ask student pairs to explain to the class how they answered each question.

Leaves Collected Activity

Distribute the Leaves Collected Graphs pages (M-2-6-3_ Leaves Collected Graphs.docx). Ask students to complete these pages. Then use the pages to formally assess students’ ability to interpret picture graphs and line plots.

Extension:

Use the following activities in your classroom to meet the needs of your students throughout the year:

• Routine: Graphs in Print: Regularly bring in graphs from newspapers or periodicals for students to analyze and interpret. This will help students understand that graphs are used regularly in the world around them, not just in math class. (USA Today often has many graphs of varying types, including picture graphs.)
• Small Groups: Work in small groups with students who need more practice. Pose a question that you think might interest the small group of students. For example, ask students what pets they have at home. Help them go through the entire process from data collection to creating a tally chart to putting the data into graph form. Monitor each small group, being prepared to address misconceptions.
• Some students may have trouble counting objects on the graph that represent more than one. If students have difficulty with this, pull a small group together to practice skip counting.
• Expansion: Ask students to work together in pairs to create a survey. Ask them to use their survey to gather data. Then engage the pairs of students in plotting their results using bar graphs, picture graphs, or line plots. Be sure to ask each pair why they chose the type of graph they did.
• Show students two graphs and have them compare the two by asking questions like
  • “How many fewer _____ did graph A have than graph B?”
  • “Which two _____ were chosen by more people in graph A than graph B?”