Lesson 9

The purpose of this lesson is for students to collect categorical data about the class, organize it, and represent it in a way others can understand.

In previous lessons students sorted objects and created visual representations of the number of objects in each category using shapes, tally marks, or numbers. In this lesson, students answer a survey question and represent different responses with different colored cubes. Connecting cubes are a concrete way to represent each student and their previous work with cubes may lead them to suggest making towers by color to organize the cubes. This supports students as they make their own representations in the next activity. Students make statements based on the data after it is represented visually.

As the class builds community, it is helpful to learn about each other’s likes and dislikes. When choosing a survey question to ask, consider some of the following:

What is your favorite:

• animal
• pet
• subject in school
• special area in school (Art, Music, etc.)
• field trip destination
• indoor activity
• recess activity
• sport
• fruit
• snack

Choose a question and come up with three possible responses to the question that students can choose from when taking the survey. Consider having students help choose the question and responses.

• Each group of 2 needs access to red, blue, and yellow connecting cubes.

• Have extra copies of the three-column table from a previous lesson available for students. 

• Students need their representations from the previous activity.

Reflect on times you observed students listening to one another’s ideas today in class. What norms would help each student better attend to their classmates’ ideas in future lessons?