More Graphs

I wrote about playing dice games and making graphs earlier in my blog, you can find that link here.

This activity was inspired because one of Joy's grandmas gave her a bag of foam shape stickers. They are each a little less than an inch tall, and they come in four shapes. When Joy asked to use them, we took a small handful (maybe 15-20) and then I helped her make a pictograph with them. I did a lot of the work on the first graph, but when we repeated the task over the next few days, Joy did more and more of it.

By the time we made the fourth graph (no more than one a day), Joy was writing the title and making the pictograph by herself. I completed the labels because she hadn't made room for them. The title reads, "Sorting Shapes 4" She also wrote, "Mode stars" on it, which is true!

Why on earth would I make her do this FOUR times? Wouldn't once give her the concept of a graph? Yes... but that's not my goal, or at least not all of it. Understanding and manipulating data is an important skill in mathematics and science; I want Joy to understand how to use data to make decisions. The first step is to learn how data works. By taking a small handful (It would have been better to use a measuring cup, but this is kindergarten!) and sorting them into a pictograph, Joy knows what the graph means. She knows that there are more stars than anything else; she knows that there are fewest squares. And by doing it four times, she knows that it doesn't always come out the same.

That's a vital understanding about data. Data varies. And within those variations, there is some truth. A person shouldn't make decisions based on one trial; you need more proof! And yes, Joy is old enough to understand this at a basic level.

Before we started the fourth graph today, Joy and I looked over the three previous graphs. We looked for patterns in the data. What was the mode in each? Which shape had the least each time? The only real pattern we found was that circles were the fewest each of the first three times. Based on that, Joy predicted that circles would be the least on the fourth graph. They weren't, as you can see on the picture above. But that's good learning! I intend to make as many graphs as the stickers allow, comparing and predicting with more accuracy each time. At the end, we'll translate the data onto a graph of the entire package of stickers.

Today, when the fourth graph was done, Joy and I looked over all of them, comparing and contrasting the data. Joy pointed out that stars were the mode (shape with the most) on three of the four graphs. I mentioned the word trend, but I don't expect Joy to really understand it. I'm delighted that she has a solid definition of mode.

Thanks, Grandma!

Spelunking Adventures

We took a homeschool field trip a couple of weeks ago. We visited two caves, one of which we had visited before. Field trips aren't new to education, but they are certainly fewer and farther between in the public schools than they were a couple of decades ago.  We take lots of field trips in homeschool kindergarten!

Before we went to the caves, Joy and I reread the brochure from the cave we had previously visited. Then she made a lists of things she thought she would see in each cave. She was very confident about what she would see in the first cave, but hesitant about predicting what might be in the second cave. With some assistance, Joy was able to make a list of what she might see.

We enjoyed touring the caves, and we learned a lot from the tour guides. Joy didn't ask many questions, but I did! I pointed out stalactites and stalagmites (making sure I emphasized that staLAGmites were from the ground and staLACtites were from the ceiling!) and columns. We talked on both cave tours about how water is slightly acidic and dissolves the limestone over time. I made sure Joy saw the way limestone forms in layers and the fossils that are abundant in limestone. In the car, traveling from each cave, Joy made a list of things she saw at that cave.

But the majority of the learning that happened with the spelunking adventure took place at home, after the trip. I wanted Joy to think  about the similarities and differences in the caves, so I made a large Venn Diagram and labeled each circle with one cave's name. Then we took the postcards we bought at each cave and placed them on the Venn Diagram properly. This showed Joy how the intersection was for things true about both caves, and the rest of the circles were for things true about only that one cave.

Joy later wrote the names of things we saw in each cave (and both caves) on the Venn Diagram. You can see stalactites and stalagmites in the intersection. For Mystery Cave, she wrote orange stalactites and blue lake. For Niagara Cave, she wrote waterfall and wedding chapel. She completed this Venn Diagram a couple of days after the trip; I think she remembered really well!

We will use a Venn Diagram to compare two things again soon, so that Joy remembers how to use one. It's a great way to organize your thoughts before you speak or write on a topic. You could use a Venn Diagram about any two experiences that had some similarities and some differences. You could even compare Mom and Dad... wouldn't that be interesting?!

Bears, Bears, Bears!

 Joy's attraction to bears continues to drive some of my instruction. On a recent trip to the zoo, we checked out almost a dozen books about bears! It was a great review of fiction and non-fiction, and we found several books at a level Joy can read herself.

One of the non-fiction books had tons of great pictures and information written at a level appropriate for Joy, so I read it to her while she took notes. YES, a five-year-old can take meaningful notes!!!

Her notes looked like the picture above. The big check marks were added later during a visit to the zoo to see the bears. She remembered what information each and every picture represented and took great pleasure in sharing the information with her friend and all the nearby visitors as she watched the bears.

To the right, the highlighted area has berries, fish, and a deer. I drew the fish and deer, at Joy's request. She was frustrated by how little room there was on the paper at that point, and it served no purpose to demand that she figure out a way to depict deer and fish. She insisted that those two foods be on the picture!

To the left, the highlighted section represented a bear's "massive head" (words directly from the book I read to her) and large snout. At the zoo, Joy also informed those around her that the snout was used to find food because bears have "bad eyes."

This picture (right) has the bear's large feet highlighted, and later Joy added long, sharp claws. She said they were used to dig up the ground, pick berries, and kill deer. I suggested that they also caught fish, but Joy wouldn't agree to that, even though it's true. She was very certain that she knew all about bears! She did enjoy looking at the bears' claws at the zoo.

To the left, you'll see a bear highlighted with at least 6 legs. When I asked her how many legs bears have, she seemed to think I was dense. She said, "They have four, but this bear is running fast. I drew it like that to show that bears are fast!" Can't argue with that.

  To the right, you'll see a highlighted bear who has really long back legs and no body. Joy added a body later when she looked at it again. She explained that the bear was standing up really tall, which bears do. She was so excited when she saw the real bear stand up tall at the zoo. She kept saying, "See! See! They DO stand up, Mom! See!?"

The bears at the zoo also gave us a great look at the bottoms of their feet, which greatly intrigued Joy. I was delighted to find her interested in them because the zoo has life-sized bear prints on the floor of the bear exhibit. I pulled out a ruler and Joy proceeded to measure each of the bear prints and record them in her notebook.

As long as bears are so interesting to Joy, I'll keep using them to improve her reading, writing, measuring, science, note-taking, and other skills! When she shifts her interests to something else, we'll go with that, too.

Night School

A few nights ago we had some serious thunderstorms in the wee hours of the morning. Joy has always been afraid of thunder (and other loud, sudden noises), so we weren't surprised to find her at our door saying, "Mom, Dad, I'm scared!" I got up and went to lie down with her in her bed, which is our usual response. However, Joy was very wiggly and not willing to calm down, and it seemed the storm was winding down, so I scooted on back to my own bed.

CRASH! The thunder started up for real just a few minutes later. I didn't even wait for Joy to arrive at our door; I simply got up and said, "Let's go watch the storm!" She was surprised because we usually try to go back to sleep, but this time, the lightning was continual, the thunder was deafening, and the wind was incredible! I wanted to see if there were any weather warnings, and I knew nobody was going to be sleeping (unless it was Dad!).

So we settled onto the couch by the picture window and watched the show. It was reminiscent of John Archambault and Bill Martin Jr's Listen to the Rain: "The lightning-flashing, thunder-crashing, sounding, pounding roaring rain." The electricity went out almost immediately, so I grabbed my smartphone to see the weather... and decided it was time for some homeschooling.

"Hey, Joy!" I said, "Look at this!" And I showed her the weather map. She knows the location and shape of our state, the surrounding states, and most of the states we've visited. I pointed out where the state boundaries were because they were hard to see with all the yellow, orange, and red on the map. She was delighted to see our state and our city.

We talked about what the colors meant and we were both suitably impressed by the colors covering our part of the state. She was a little frightened by the storm, but definitely engaged in the weather map. Then I animated the map.

"Whoa! Mom! Why are the colors moving??!!" And I explained how storms happen when a mass (defined by me as a "bunch") of cool air moved into a mass of warm air. We watched for a few minutes, then Joy exclaimed, "The colors are moving away from us!" So we turned our attention back outside, where, indeed, the storm was calming a bit. We watched the storm move away on the phone and in front of us.

Pretty soon, Joy was confident that the storm was ending, and we went back to bed, calmer and a bit wiser about weather. Another line from Listen to the Rain runs through my head now: "The dripping, dripping, dropping, the slowly, slowly stopping, the fresh, wet, silent, after-time of rain."

Stealth Kindergarten at its best!