Worksheets involving all kinds of graphs -- bar, coordinate, pie and pictograph -- are available online for free. One website that provides a variety of easy-to-use materials for fifth graders is Super Teacher Worksheets. Even a worksheet that the website rates "easy," such as the "Students' Favorite Colors" vertical bar graph and questionnaire, can be extended to challenge student thinking. For example, one question it doesn't ask concerns total students surveyed to obtain the data. This inquiry may confuse students until they remember to add together quantities represented by the bars. Then they begin to see the data in the graph as a "picture" of an entire group.
Engaging online graphing games allow students to play at their own speed and ability level. But finding good links can be time-consuming unless the researcher bumps into a website that has already done the work, such as one posted by Saints Peter & Paul School of Naperville, Illinois. Its links include the coordinate graph game "Billy Bug and His All New Quest for Grub." To obtain points, a player uses arrow buttons to identify a point represented by an "x, y" coordinate pair on the "x and y axes," such as "3, 1" (across three and up one). After the player clicks "feed," Billy Bug twirls and shouts "Yahoo" if the answer is correct.
Another excellent activity for learning to use a coordinate graph is reading a map. Every student receives the same map, which is marked with letters along the "y" (vertical) axis and numbers along the "x" (horizontal) axis. Then the teacher says a coordinate pair, as in "6M," and students trace their fingers across the bottom of the map to "6" and then straight up to its imaginary intersection with "M." Board games involving the guessing of coordinates, such as "Battleship," build the same skill. The class can play the game as a group, students against teacher, by following a modified "sink the teacher" version at the I Want to Teach Forever website.
Kinesthetic learners are students who learn best while moving, doing and touching. One popular, active way of gaining an understanding of a coordinate system is to push aside desks and use tape to lay out axes, creating four quadrants on the classroom floor. Each student receives a card containing a coordinate pair and takes a turn being the "point," gaining help from other students if necessary. Then he tapes his card at the imaginary intersection of his coordinate pair. Another fun hands-on activity is to move around the class asking students about a topic, such as likes and dislikes concerning foods. Then students graph their data and compare their results.