The students got into partners. Each set of partners had a (cheap) beach bucket and a small foam ball. They had to take three steps back from their partner to shoot their baskets. Partners took turns holding the basket and shooting, but everyone had to keep track of their own data. Some of the students decided to give their partners challenges by holding the buckets on their heads and moving around while their partner was shooting, ha!
While students were shooting/catching they had to tally their makes and misses. Our goal was to get at least 20 shots each, but after a while we had to call it quits because it was time to move on!
We set down and transferred out tally marks to our graph. Then, discussed and answered questions about our data. Afterwards I gave each student a basketball so we could collect our data and represent it on a class graph. We had some really great discussions and graph talk going on at this point. After all was said and done I asked the question, “If you were a basketball scout, and you were looking for players to play on your team, how could this information help you?” They were able to provide great feedback and answers, so I call that a win! This activity mirrors what is in my Let’s Graph unit.
We didn’t have just a ton of time to write, but they were able to generate a few sentences about what information they had learned 🙂
For the students that finished on time or early we had just minutes to spare before recess. I quickly went through the Michael Jordan directed drawing.
I have to say that it was a pretty fun time together! Michael Jordan’s story is interesting in and of itself, but when the kids get to move around to play basketball, that peeks their interest even more!
Do you have any favorite graphing activities that are fun and engaging? I’d love to hear about them below!
Hi, I'm Amy
Hey, y’all! My name is Amy Lemons and I am passionate about providing students with both engaging and effective standards-based Math and ELA lessons.
Thank you for the graphing freebie! We just started our graphing unit! What fun to integrate!
Thanks
You forgot to say how loud it will be!! 🙂
We use a Question of the Day chart every morning in Calendar time. When students come in they vote on the answer to a question. When we meet for calendar time we go over it and answer graphing questions! The answers come so easy now!
Thank you for this idea!
Love this! The story is good, adding graphing and a game makes it great!
5 Responses
Thank you for the graphing freebie! We just started our graphing unit! What fun to integrate!
Thanks
You forgot to say how loud it will be!! 🙂
We use a Question of the Day chart every morning in Calendar time. When students come in they vote on the answer to a question. When we meet for calendar time we go over it and answer graphing questions! The answers come so easy now!
Thank you for this idea!
Love this! The story is good,
adding graphing and a game makes it great!