Lesson Plan: PreK "Charts and Bar Graphs"

Standards Addressed
Irving ISD Virtual Voting Lesson Plan – Pre‐K
Lesson Title or Topic Charts and Bar Graphs
V.A.4 ‐ The child counts 1‐10 items, with one count per item.
V.A.5 ‐ The child counts up to 10 items and demonstrates that the last
count indicates how many items were counted.
V.E.2 ‐ The child collects data and organizes it in a graphic
representation.
VII.D.3 ‐ The child engages in voting as a method for group decision‐
making.
Key Vocabulary survey, tally mark, tally chart, bar graph
Materials computer with Internet access, Excel, voting item (popsicle sticks,
pencils, etc.), 2 containers (2 to hold the voting items, and 1 to hold
the voting items before use)
Engage
(The activities in this section
capture the student’s
attention, stimulate their
thinking and help them
access prior knowledge.)
Explore
(In this section students are
given time to think, plan,
investigate, and organize
collected information).
Introduce key vocabulary words. Ask students if they have heard
these words, and if so, where.
As children enter the classroom have a voting opportunity for
everyone to participate in as they walk in the door. For instance,
“Who do you like the best, Diego or Dora?” The children can vote by
selecting a popsicle stick (or any other item you have multiples of in
your classroom ‐ be sure to have a place for the children to place the
item, and allow the children to only pick up one of the items). If you
start the school year with activities like this where children have to
decide between two items, you can move to this type of exercise very
smoothly.

Explain
(Students are now involved
in an analysis of their
exploration. Their
understanding is clarified
and modified because of
reflective activities).
Reference the daily commitment the children make (Frog Street
Curriculum, Theme 2, pg. 171) and help them to make the connection
between their daily choices [ex. using kinds words, using helping
hands, using big voice, listening to other’s big voices] and making a
choice on a larger scale.
Remind the children of the voting opportunity they had as they
walked in the door. Talk about how you are going to be talking about
the information gathered through this selection process. Be sure to
explain this is not a voting opportunity where something is going to
win, but merely a survey to see which is the most popular. [You might
take this opportunity to differentiate between voting for informational
purposes and voting for making a selection of something tangible.]
When we want to find out information from a group of people, we
take a survey. By asking people what they like we are gathering
information, which we can look at and figure out what the majority of
the people like.

Elaborate / Extend
(This section gives students
the opportunity to expand
and solidify their
understanding of the
concept and apply it to a
real world situation.)
Get the containers the children used to make their earlier selection.
[Be sure to have the containers labeled, not only for the children to
easily make their decision, but also so when the containers are moved
they are not confused.] Show the children the container. Remind
them this is not selecting something as a winner. but rather gathering
information as to the favorite character of the children in the
classroom. Choose one of the containers and begin to count with the
children the voting items in the container. [It would work best if you
have a place you can put the items down so the children can see them
at all times.] Once you have counted the items, introduce the
vocabulary words tally mark. Using a chart paper, white board, or
other writing surface show the children how to write a tally mark.
Have one of the children make a tally mark for each of the voting
items as the class counts the items in the first container. Repeat with
the second container. [Be sure the child records the tally marks in a
different color, or in the area you have designated for the second
container.]
Once you have the tally marks for each of the choices, ask the children
if they can easily decide which of the two choices was the most
popular? Ask how they were able to decide the most popular?
Introduce the vocabulary word bar graph. [Have the computer
connected to the projection system and setup with an Excel
spreadsheet or one of the online bar graph generators open and ready
to enter information,. Be sure to have an icon for each of the choices
the children had at the beginning of the lesson and the numeral along
the edge so the children can see them for reference purposes (they
may not be used, but it is great reinforcement when it comes to the
counting portion of the analysis).] Using the spreadsheet (either
through Excel or using one of the online bar graph generates listed
below) explain to the children that each box represents one student’s
choice. As you begin to count the voting items, have one child at a
time come to the computer and color in the box above or next to the
appropriate character [depending on the direction of your bar graph ‐
it would be good to do the lesson both ways so the children can see
how one shows the selections grow taller and the other makes the
selection grow longer.].
Once the graph has been completed talk about the results of the
survey.
Questions :
Which character is the most popular?
How can you tell which character is the most popular?
How many more people like (Diego) more than (Dora)?
Which character is the least popular?
How many people would need to vote for Dora in order for her to be
more popular than Diego?

Followup/Extensions You can allow the children to practice creating a tally chart and bar
graph through the “Charts and Bar Graph” game, Picture Maker,
http://www.brainpopjr.com/math/data/tallychartsandbargraphs/pict
uremaker/.
[This can be completed as a small group or individual activity. It would
be best if this activity were done with some adult supervision or
demonstrated in a large group setting in order to verify
understanding. This is a great follow‐up activity to the hands‐on
activity completed during the lesson.]
Home Connection Ask the children to create a simple bar graph with their family
showing the number of males and females in their household.
When the graphs are returned, allow the children to get into
groups of 2 ‐ 3 to talk about and compare their graphs.
Questions:
o Which person has the most females in their family?
o Which person has the most males in their family?
o Who has the most members in their family?
o Who has the least number of people in their family.
Resources Online Resources:
BrainPop, Jr. ‐ “Charts and Bar Graph” (video)
Interactive White Board activity ideas ‐
http://www.prometheanplanet.com/server.php?show=conRes
ource.9907
http://www.prometheanplanet.com/server.php?show=conRes
ource.11348
Individual or Small group review
http://www.sfsocialstudies.com/g1/u6/index.html ‐ this is a
great interactive game where the children must read the graph
and select the appropriate numeral response
Online Bar Grapher
http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/g
rapher.html
http://www.mathsisfun.com/data/data‐graph.php
Multiple Resources ‐ printables and presentations to use or
springboard from
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/mathsF1.htm#pict
ograms
Book Recommendations :
Graficas de barras = Bar Graphs por Vijaya Khisty Bodach
Graph It! by Lisa Trumbauer
Tally Charts by Vijaya Khisty Bodach