Our Favourite Things

Expectations:

D1.3 display sets of data, using one-to-one correspondence, in concrete graphs and pictographs with proper sources, titles, and labels

D1.5 analyse different sets of data presented in various ways, including in tally tables, concrete graphs, and pictographs, by asking and answering questions about the data and drawing conclusions, then make convincing arguments and informed decisions

Key Concepts

• Collecting and Organizing Data

Begin a discussion about favourite things by telling students the following story:

“Saturday is my favourite day of the week. Last Saturday, I did a lot of favourite things. For breakfast, I had pancakes, my favourite breakfast food. Then I went for a long walk, which is one of my favourite outdoor activities. For lunch, I had my favourite sandwich. In the afternoon I visited my favourite aunt, and we played checkers, which is our favourite game. Because I was having a day with so many favourite things, I decided to make my favourite meal for dinner – I had spaghetti and meatballs. After dinner, I read my favourite book. I went to bed on Saturday night and thought about all the favourite things that filled my day.”

Tell students that you are interested in knowing some of their favourite things. Have students respond to the questions, such as the following:

• “What is your favourite day of the week?”

• “What is your favourite breakfast food?”

• “What is your favourite outdoor activity?”

• “What is your favourite kind of sandwich?”

• Suggest that the class create a book entitled Our Favourite Things. Discuss how students in the class could survey one another to learn about their favourite things, and how students could create graphs to display the survey results.

• Organize students into pairs (or students can complete the task individually). On the board, record “What is your favourite ______?” and ask pairs to decide what their survey question will be, for example, “What is your favourite game? What is your favourite fruit?” After pairs have decided on a survey question, record the different topics of students’ survey questions on the board. If more than one pair of students creates the same survey question, allow students to change their topic.

• Provide each pair with a copy of What Is Your Favourite ______? Instruct students to complete the sentence stem at the top of the page. Next, ask them to predict their classmates’ most popular choices, and to record these categories in the spaces at the bottom of the graph. (Some students may recognize the benefit of including an “Other” category; however, do not insist that students include this category – it is better that they learn through experience that an “Other” category is an important option in some surveys.)

• Encourage pairs to make a plan before they begin to survey classmates. Ask them to think about how they can ensure that all students in the class answer the survey question, avoid asking students more than once, and record the survey data in an organized way.

• Note: If students have had many opportunities to collect and organize data, they might be ready to do this activity without using the template on BLM: What Is Your Favourite ______? If conducting a survey with the entire class is difficult for students, have them survey a smaller group of students.

• Provide time for students to survey their classmates and to collect the data. Students might organize the data by using tally marks, recording symbols beside students’ names, or colouring spaces on the template on BLM: What Is Your Favourite ______? Observe the methods used by students and provide guidance when needed.

• Encourage students to prepare graphs that will be easy for others to understand. Suggest that they create their own graph on a different sheet of paper, OR students can use Explain Everything, Mathies Notepad, Keynote or Pages to create a pictograph and display their data. Encourage students to use pictures/symbols to display the data that they collected. Have students record a sentence about the data below their graph. Remind students that the graphs need to be easy to read, labels are clearly recorded, graph includes title and labels, and their work is neat.

Assemble students after they complete their graphs, and have some pairs of students present their work. Ask students to explain what they learned about their classmates’ favourite things.

Ask questions that encourage students to reflect on the methods they used to collect and organize data:

• “What was your survey question?”

• “How did you make sure that everyone answered the question?”

• “How did you make sure that you did not ask the same person more than once?”

• “How did you record the data?”

• “How did you create a graph?”

• “What was easy for you to do?”

• “What was difficult to do?”

• “When you collect data for a survey question next time, is there something you might do differently? Why?”

• “What did you learn about collecting and organizing data?”

Post students’ pages after they present their work. Discuss the similarities and differences among the different graphs. Ask students to look at the work samples and to decide which graphs are easy to understand. Have students explain characteristics of graphs that are easy to read (e.g., labels are clearly recorded, graph includes title and labels, work is neat).

Assemble students’ work to create an iBook using Pages or Keynote. Invite students to read the book to learn more about their classmates’ favourite things.

Observe students to assess how well they:

• • select appropriate categories for their surveys;

  • collect and organize data;

  • create graphs to display data;

  • make observations about the data.

Primary SEL Self Assessment (English) Primary SEL Self Assessment (French)

SEL Teacher Rubric