How many more names would we need in the 3-letters row so it had the same as the 4-letters row?.The 6-letters row has how many more than the 2-letters row?.How many more student names are in the 5-letters row compared to the 8-letters row?.
Use a new poster board to write a title for your graph: How Many Letters Are in Your Name? Explain that a title is always needed so the person reading the graph will know what it is about. Step 9: Guide students through the steps of creating a graph. Graphs are a quick and easy way to get information from information, or data, that was collected." Commend students on their efforts, and tell them "What we are beginning to create is called a graph. Guide students to discover that grouping the names with the same number of letters would be the clearest way to compare the information presented. Step 8: Ask how else we could arrange the cards so we could see very clearly and quickly how many letters each student has in their name. Guide students' attention to their names and express confusion at still not being able to see all of this information clearly. Step 7: Bring students back to the community area, pull out a large poster board, and tape each student's name to it haphazardly. Step 6: Instruct students to write the number of letters in their name directly under their name. I also tell students that they should decorate their name with stars, curlicues, etc. Have them use crayons, markers, or colored pencils for this activity so everyone can see their names clearly. Step 5: Send students back to their desks to write their names. What if you each took and index card and went back to your desk and wrote your first name on it? And then you could bring it back to the community area and we could glue them all on a large piece of paper so we could see them all at once?" Hopefully, this will be a little confusing to your students and you can stop them and say "I would really like it if we had a clear and organized way to compare all of this information. Start to ask who had 2 letters, 3 letters, 4 letters etc. Step 4: Ask students if they can count the number of letters in their own first name on their fingers.
Some may comment that we could use our own ten plus three more fingers with a friend, or use our own ten fingers and then start again on our own fingers, etc. Note: This is an interesting formative assessment point to see which students comment that we only have 10 fingers. Ask students to see if they can count the number of letters in Chrysanthemum's name on their fingers. Step 3: Have students recall how many letters were in Chrysanthemum's name. Step 2: After the read aloud, lead a discussion to remind students about what makes their own names special. Throughout the reading, have students stop and Think-Pair-Share with a partner about what is happening in the story. Step 1: Read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.