It’s time to teach bar graphs and picture graphs during First Grade Graphing! Knowing the vertical alignment and the Common Core and TEKS Standards will be helpful for planning and teaching this unit.
To see the First Grade Graphing Standards for the Common Core and the TEKS, click the image above.
Vertical Alignment is so important when planning your lessons. You need to know what your students should already know and what they should know when their first grade years is over. Vertical alignment looks at the Kindergarten Standards as well as the Second Grade Standards. It sets you and your students up for SUCCESS! Click the image above to see the Vertical Alignment.
3. The Breakdown: First Grade Graphing Data Analysis | Represent & Interpret Data
I found a few differences between the TEKS and the Common Core Standards. Most importantly, both standards state the use of up to three categories. This may seem too easy, but at first, it’s a great start. Once your students get the main gist of graphing, go ahead and add up to 5 categories.
The Student Will:
- Collect, sort and organize data – hands on activities
- Use tally marks / T- Charts – record data
- Create Picture / Bar Graphs – use data
- Generate and Answer Question from graphs – draw conclusions
- Include How many more / less are in one category than another – subtraction
Students also must know:
- Basic Counting
- Using Tally Marks
- Using a T-Chart
I recommend the following progression:
- Importance of Graphing
- Graphing Vocabulary
- Data Collection with Tally Marks / T-Chart
- Bar Graphs
- Picture Graphs
- Generate and Answer Questions
4. The Teach: Let’s start at the beginning – Why Graphing is Important
In other words, why do kids need to learn about graphing? To answer, I like to start like this. Read the story about Aaron and his erasers. Ask the students if they can picture the information easily in their minds. Next, show them the bar graph with the information. Ask if organizing the information in a graph is easier to understand. Tell them that that’s what you’re going to be doing in your graphing unit.
Click the image to download the story with graph.
Introduce key First Grade Graphing Terms:
Parts of a Graph
- Data
- Bar Graph
- Picture Graph (Picto-graph)
Click on the image to grab this set of FREE Posters.
Things to Graph:
- Tiny Erasers
- Colorful Candy
- Colorful Cereal
- Colored Counters
- Markers
- Crayons
- Favorites such as games, food items, colors, books, animals, toys, etc.
Data Collection: Collecting data to create bar graphs and picture graphs
In addition, your students need to take a set of items and organize them into categories to be graphed. This free resource gives you several ways to practice this skill with your students. I have used a card with Froot Loops cereal images. You could also buy real cereal and put a few pieces in a baggie for each child (you would not want to exceed the amount of bars provided in the bar graph).
Anchor Chart Information
Create an anchor chart for a bar graph and a pictograph. For the bar graph, you can do most of the work ahead of time and label the graph with the students. For the picture graph, create the framework for the graph and then glue on the images as the students watch. Then label the graph. Here are a couple that I created.
5. The Practice: Your students can collect data and practice graphing with bar graphs, picture graphs and tally marks.
Informal Assessing: Use the Froot Loops graphing as an informal assessment when you complete it as a whole group activity.
6. The Small Group Instruction: First Grade Graphing
Here are some ideas for your small group:
- Have a collection of items (list above) and allow students to organize into data and graph the items
- Use Graphing Cards and ask questions about the graphs.
- Use Graphing Cards and allow students to create questions about the graph
- Worksheet can be done small group when worked altogether.
It can also be noted, that when using these Graphing Cards, you can have students generate and answer question about the bar graphs.
Other FUN ways to practice first grade graphing with bar graphs and picture graphs:
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7. The Learning Centers:
Above all, kids need practice. Kids love using Boom Cards to practice skills. They are interactive, self-checking and paperless and have become a go-to for many teachers for distance learning. They’re also so easy to assign! Read my blog post here.
Online Games
8. The Fun
With this resource, your students will have a blast graphing their favorite character from favorite Mo Willems books.
I hope you found this post useful and if you’ve used any of these resources in your classroom I’d love to hear about it! Drop me a note in the comments below and let me know how it went. Also, don’t forget to pin the image below to your Teaching Resources board on Pinterest for future use.
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Thank you for stopping by!
~ Carrie Lutz
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