Today in class we explored ways to collect information, display it and analyze it. The subject of our class survey was “What Size is Your Family?” Together we made a tally chart that reflected the sizes of our different families (only the totals of our tally marks are shown here):
We then made a bar graph displaying our results:
Children were taught how to come up with a title that is appropriate for the graph, as well as titles for the x and y axis. They were also asked to colour the bars of their graph different colours.
They were then asked to find the maximum (greatest or largest) family size. Some children mistakenly thought that the answer was 12 (reflecting the family size that had the most votes) or 7 (which was an option on our survey, but no one in our class had 7 members in their family). The correct answer in this case was 6.
Students were then asked to find the minimum (the smallest) family size. Some children thought the answer was 1 – as this was the smallest family size listed on our bar graph. But since there was no one with a family size of 1, the correct answer is 2.
To calculate the range, we simple found the difference between the maximum and minimum family size:
6 – 2 = 4
To find the mode, we looked at the family size that had the most votes, which was 4. Twelve people had a family size of 4, therefore 4 is the mode.
For homework tonight, children are asked to complete Homelink 1.5 which asks them to create a tally chart for the number of hours of tv watched. They must then determine the maximum, minimum, range and mode. You may find that your child will benefit from drawing a bar graph as well as looking at the tally chart. If you would like to create a bar graph with your child, feel free to attach it on a separate sheet and send in with the homework tomorrow.
Miss Fear's Grade 3 Class 