montessori primary math - beginning graphing

Purpose: To show the child how to keep a record of things they have gathered and sorted.

Materials: tray to hold materials, small basket to hold items to be sorted, 5 different kinds of items in varying quantities (not to exceed 10), a vinyl mat marked (with a magic marker) as a control graph, colored pencils, and graph paper to record findings.

Note: I made this mat myself out of vinyl i bought at the fabric store. I used a ruler and magic marker to draw the graph lines on the vinyl. The happy faces are magnets I bought at the dollar store.

Prepare this job everyday by increasing or decreasing the items so that the child's findings will be different every time they return to do the work. Some children will only be able to do the initial sorting of the different objects the first time. Children who are mastering 1-10 concepts enjoy this actvity very much. This activity is a clear transition from the concrete to the abstract because it requires sorting the concrete data and recording it on a bar graph. Children can use skills they already know such as sorting, coloring, writing numbers and/or reading.







LINKS:
http://www.kindergarten-lessons.com/graphing-activities.html