Teachers can use classroom school supplies such as pencils, erasers, colors, glue and scissors to teach students about graphing. Other classroom objects could also be used such as shapes, unifix cubes, or other math manipulatives. All of these objects can be used to introduce the concept of picture graphs. By using things already available, teachers can create a picture graph for students with objects they can relate to.
Use students' hobbies and sports to create bar graphs. Although some students may not participate in sports, most enjoy watching some type of sport. Use categories such as football, baseball, basketball, swimming and soccer. For hobbies, use categories such as painting, fishing, dancing, singing and playing games. Students can see how many of their peers enjoy these sports and hobbies by reading the graph. Teachers can also guide them toward noticing which hobby is enjoyed the most and which is less popular.
Favorite food is another topic that students will have an invested interest in. Teachers could use students' favorite desserts, candy or fruit to teach about tally graphs. Use desserts such as ice cream, cake, pie, cookies and brownies. Chocolate, fruit flavored candy, sour, gummy or hot candy are different types of candy that can also be used. For fruit, choose fruits students are most familiar with such as apples, oranges, bananas, grapes and watermelon. Other types of fruits can also be used if students have a preference.
For this type of graph, the topic has to be something that can be followed over a period of time. Topics may include the amount of people arriving on time for class each day, the number of students having a hot food item for lunch instead of cold food items, or the temperature each day of the week. At the end of the week when the graph is complete, discuss anything students may notice on the graph, such as how often something occurs over a week, whether or not something ever happened, or whether there was an increase or decrease of something during the week.