LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Bear graph

The students will compare and contrast bears brought from home and share their ideas through a graph.

A lesson plan for grade K Mathematics

By Karen Pledger

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

  • gain experience comparing different objects
  • use a bar graph to show comparison

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

40 minutes

Materials/resources

  • stuffed toy bears (students’ bears from home)
  • drawing paper
  • crayons
  • bar graph pocket chart, with each bar representing a different color
  • name tags for bear names
  • marker
  • large construction paper circles — one of each color
  • big book Too Old for Naps by Jane Yolen
  • book Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Pre-activities

  • Read the big book Too Old For Naps by Jane Yolen to the whole class.
  • Read the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears to the whole class.
  • Review the basic colors with the class from a class made color chart.
  • Send a letter home to parents asking for each child to bring in their favorite teddy bear to share.
  • Set up a special area in the classroom to display the bears.

Activities

  1. Have students sit in a large circle with their bears on the carpet.
  2. Have each student tell the name of his or her bear. Give each bear a name tag to wear while visiting the classroom.
  3. Arrange colored paper circles on the floor, in the middle of the circle where the children are sitting.
  4. Have each child describe the characteristics of his or her bear, and then place the bear on the colored circle that matches the bear’s color.
  5. When each child has finished, lead a class discussion about the bears’ colors. What do they observe?
  6. Have students go to the tables with their bears and crayons. Give each student a piece of construction paper and have each student write their name on it. Instruct each student to draw a portrait of his or her bear.
  7. When students have finished their drawings, have each student return to the carpet with their bear and picture. Have students take turns taking their bear portraits to the bar graph pocket chart and placing their picture on the graph according to the color of their bear.

Assessment

The teacher will observe the students through participation and drawings.

Supplemental information

Comments

This activity is wonderful to use when you are teaching a theme on bears. Here are some ideas that I use to extend the theme of bears in my classroom:

  • Listening center: bear books and tapes
  • Math center: teddy bear counters, felt bear patterns, bear number cards, ordinal bear counting games, estimating bears
  • Writing center: teddy bear books, bear words, bear pictures, bear stamps
  • Block center: build bear caves and bear homes
  • Puzzle center: bear puzzles, flannel-board story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears
  • Housekeeping center: bear dress-up clothes, pantomime bear stories
  • Library center: fiction and non-fiction books on bears, toy bears, puppets
  • Computer center: bear-themed educational games, graphing software
  • Music center: CDs and books on bears
  • Cooking center: make breakfast for the bears (porridge)
  • Sand center: plastic bear models
  • Art center: make bear puppets, bear masks, cut out pictures of bears from magazines, paint bears
  • Clay center: make Play-Doh bears
  • Science center: weigh bears, bear books, posters of bears, models of bears, bear footprints, fur

North Carolina curriculum alignment

Mathematics (2004)

Kindergarten

  • Goal 2: Measurement - The learner will explore concepts of measurement.
    • Objective 2.01: Compare attributes of two objects using appropriate vocabulary (color, weight, height, width, length, texture).

  • Common Core State Standards

    • Mathematics (2010)

      • Kindergarten

        • Measurement & Data
          • K.MD.1Describe measurable attributes of objects, such as length or weight. Describe several measurable attributes of a single object.
          • K.MD.2Directly compare two objects with a measurable attribute in common, to see which object has “more of”/“less of” the attribute, and describe the difference. For example, directly compare the heights of two children and describe one child as taller/shorter.