Description
What our Scaled Graphs lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Scaled Graphs teaches students about bar graphs, including why they are scaled and what that means, how to read them, and how to create them. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to draw a scaled bar graph to represent data and solve problems using the information presented in the scaled graph. This lesson is for students in 3rd grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the blue box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.
Options for Lesson
Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. One optional addition to this lesson is to have your students research their own topic of interest to create a scaled graph of. You could also have them create a scaled graph using scores from a local sports team. Finally, you could have your students write their own stories, like in the homework, to exchange with other students.
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.
SCALED GRAPHS LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Parts of a Bar Graph
The Scaled Graphs lesson plan includes two content pages. Bar graphs have a few different parts, each of which plays an important part in making sure the information can be understood. The title tells you what the graph is about. The horizontal axis tells you the different options or categories, while the vertical axis shows the number or quantity and includes a scale.
The scale tells you how to count the numbers. Scales can count by any number, like 1, 5, or 1,000. The bars on the graph tell you how many of each option there are in the data. The lesson includes a few example graphs with scales other than 1. One has a scale of 5 and the other has a scale of 2.
Determining the Scale
Scales are the value you count by to create the vertical axis. The range of the data, found by subtracting the smallest value from the largest value, can help you decide on your scale. The scale represents the relationship between the units used and how they are represented on the graph.
Let’s take a look at an example. Say that you kept track of your high score on your favorite app for seven days. On Monday, your high score was 350; on Tuesday, 500; on Wednesday, 400; on Thursday, 850; on Friday, 550; on Saturday, 700; and on Sunday, 600.
If you used a scale of 1 for this bar graph, you would have to include every number from 1 all the way to 850, which would take a long time and make the graph hard to read. Instead, take a look at the range. The smallest number is 350 and the largest is 850, so it makes sense to count by 100 for the scale.
SCALED GRAPHS LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Scaled Graphs lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.
CLASS GRAPH ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
For the activity worksheet, students will answer a question as chosen by their teacher (such as their favorite ice cream flavor or how they get home from school). Each student will record their answer on a large class bar graph on the board. Once each student has recorded their answer, they will change the scale of the graph from one to another number and redraw the graph.
SCALED GRAPHS PRACTICE WORKSHEET
The practice worksheet asks students to answer questions about the graph shown on the worksheet. They will then draw a graph using the data shown on the worksheet.
STORYTIME HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
For the homework assignment, students will read the story written on the worksheet. They will then create a bar graph that Brad and Sarah, the people in the story, could share with their grandfather.
Worksheet Answer Keys
This lesson plan includes answer keys for the practice worksheet and the homework assignment. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
