Kids love any classroom activity with food involved, and this magically delicious graphing practice will be a student favorite! This activity uses Lucky Charms (but could be used with many different types of cereal or candy). You could also complete the activity with the focus on different types of graphs… picture graphs, bar graphs, etc.
This activity focuses on students labeling and completing a bar graph.
Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories. Solve one- and two-step “how many more” and “how many less” problems using information presented in scaled bar graphs.
Teacher Directions for Creating the Graph
Students will need:
1/2 cup of Lucky Charms type cereal per student
snack size zip top bag per student
1 sheet of 12 x 18 white construction paper per student
ruler (to create the graph) OR 1 blank graph per student (FREE copy included)
pencil
crayons
Teacher Prep:
Prepare a snack size bag for each student with 1/2 cup of cereal.
Student Steps:
1. First, give each student a sheet of 12 x 18 white construction paper. Students will fold the paper into four sections (hot dog fold, then hamburger fold).
2. Next the students need to sort out the marshmallow shapes from their bag of cereal.
The shapes in Lucky Charms are as follows (if you use a different kind of cereal you will want to determine all of the shape possibilities):
hearts
stars
horseshoes
clovers
blue moons
rainbows
red balloons
unicorns
3. Next students will sort, group, and glue the marshmallows in the first square of their paper (Be careful displaying these on a bulletin board… one year someone apparently pulled off the cereal pieces and ate them!).
🌈 I let my students eat all of the oat pieces left in their bags while they work.😄
4. In the next square students will create a tally chart to record the number of each type of marshmallow.
5. Then students will need to create their bar graph. You can choose to allow students to make their own using a ruler… (😱) or you can download the blank bar graph I have for you here!
I hope the your students love this Magically Delicious Graphing Practice!
