From Using Materials to Using Numbers

In my last data handling blog post, I told how I asked my students to show me, using linking cubes, what the most common colour was? Automatically they organised then structured the data with ease.

To begin this activity I reflected with my students about the process they previously went through and that this time all they had to consider was changing their thinking from cubes to numbers. 

I gave groups piles of numbers and asked them to think of them as a group of different temperatures, as we are presently inquiring about weather for our unit on How the World Works, this seemed a natural fit. (Yes! I forgot the degrees symbol... I realised half way through). 

The question I posed now was, What is the most common temperature?

I was impressed with how well they all sorted then structured the numbers effortlessly. It made me realise how important using manipulatives are in transferring learning from using concert materials to using numbers. Using the manipulatives allowed students to visually and conceptually develop their understanding.

I then challenged them to show this data using a graph. We have explored a few different graphs, mostly bar and line, when looking at temperature forecast.

To gauge their ability I let them have a go. I will use this as a formative assessment task to form where to go next!