Instruct students to ask their parents how many apples they have at home, both edible and decorative. During the next math lesson, draw a long vertical line on the board and write each student's name on its left side, starting from the top and working down. Start asking one student at a time about the number of apples in her house. If the student answers "four," draw, on the right side of the line, four equal-size apples adjacent to each other and in line with the student's name, forming a horizontal line. Repeat the process with the rest of the students to complete this simple graph. This way, students can understand what bars of different heights indicate on a bar chart.
Divide students into teams, each responsible of one grade. Ask students to talk to teachers of other grades during recesses to learn about the exact sizes of their classes. When you have accumulated the data, draw a long horizontal line on the board and write the name of each grade under it. Design a vertical line near the left side of the board, intersecting with the horizontal one. Place numerical values representing the number of students in ascending order from the bottom upward. Each team must then form a vertical rectangle on the board, starting from the grade's place on the horizontal line and reaching the number of its students. Through this activity, students learn how to create an ordinary bar graph.
Record on separate sheets the grades of a group of anonymous or imaginary students on math tests since the start of the school year. Distribute the sheets randomly to every student in class. Draw horizontal and vertical intersecting lines on the board. Add months -- September, October ... -- below the horizontal line and grades -- A+, A-, B+ and so forth -- in ascending order, starting from the bottom of the vertical line upward. For more than one test in a month, add the exact dates. Ask students to come to the board -- one at a time -- and mark the test grades for each month, as mentioned on their sheets; e.g., place a dot on B in December, followed by a dot on A+ in January. Afterward, give students markers or chalk of different colors to connect the dots and complete a line graph depicting each anonymous student's progress on math tests.
Write on the board the number of female students, male students and all students in your class. Calculate the percentage of female and male students by multiplying their numbers by 100 and then dividing by the total number of students. For example, if you have 12 girls in a classroom of 25 children, their percentage is 1200/25 = 48 percent. Since the circle consists of 360 degrees, the angle of each female student in the example must be (360/100)*48 = approximately 173. Form a circle on the board and design a 173-degree angle in its center. Use blue and pink markers to distinguish between the different parts of the chart. This activity is suitable for students who have already been taught about the concept of percentages and the circle's attributes.