Unit 6- Would You Rather Be an Eagle or a Whale? 

This unit is about data— the facts or information we collect about people and things in our world. Students will be posing questions, collecting data, and making representations of the data they collect. These representations help communicate the important information, for example, how many people are in each group, which group has more/fewer and how many more/fewer, and how many people responded to the survey. Students will also be solving comparison problems that are based on data. 

Activities to Try at Home 

Will We See More [Trucks or Buses]? On a trip, play “Which has more?” Begin by posing a question: “Which do you think we will see more of in the next five minutes: __ or __?” Depending on your surroundings, you might choose pairs such as bicycle riders or joggers, trucks or buses, cows or horses. Your child will have ideas, too! Help your child choose things that give enough to count—about 10 or 15 of each object. If the count is too low to be of interest, you might extend the time limit. The important thing is that your child keeps track of each item (using check marks, numbers, pictures, words, and so on), accurately counts, and then compares the results. 

How Many More? After collecting the data and deciding what they saw more of, challenge your child to determine how many more [bikes, trucks, or cows] they saw. 

Will We See More [Cars, Trucks, or Buses]? Play “Which has more?” with three choices. Ask your child whether they think you will see more walkers, runners, or bikers; cars, trucks, or buses; cows, horses, or birds. Set a time limit, or keep track until the first group reaches 10 or 15. Encourage your child to describe their findings by telling you how many were in each group, which group had the most/least, and whether they are surprised by the results. 

[2] More Than [3] Find opportunities to pose questions like the following: “I have 2 pennies in my left pocket. I have three more pennies in my right pocket than I have in my left pocket. How many pennies are in my right pocket?” Keep the numbers small, and act out the problems together to solve them.