Anniversary Graphing by Tens
I'm always looking for ways in which to incorporate family history into common educational activities. When my son was in Kindergarten last year, they did a lot of counting by tens and fives, and they also did some basic graphing. So, for this simple activity, we graphed family wedding anniversaries using small wooden blocks.
First, we printed out a few photos of couples in our family - my kids' parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents - and we laid them out on the floor. I talked with my kids about how long each couple has been married and explained that an anniversary is what we celebrate each year to remember their wedding. We rounded to the nearest ten; for example, my parents have been married 41 years, so we rounded down to 40. Then, using one block to represent ten years, we counted out the length of marriage for each couple by tens.
First, we printed out a few photos of couples in our family - my kids' parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents - and we laid them out on the floor. I talked with my kids about how long each couple has been married and explained that an anniversary is what we celebrate each year to remember their wedding. We rounded to the nearest ten; for example, my parents have been married 41 years, so we rounded down to 40. Then, using one block to represent ten years, we counted out the length of marriage for each couple by tens.
Since he did it last year in Kindergarten, my son didn't have any trouble with counting, but it was still a nice review exercise for him. My 4yo daughter had never counted by tens before, so I walked her through it, and the more we repeated the progression of 10,20,30,... the more she picked up on the pattern. And since we had enough blocks, we started over and counted by fives, too.
We are fortunate in our family to have several couples that have been married for different lengths of time, so it created a nice, diverse graph. Another option for this activity is to use individuals' ages instead of wedding anniversaries. You also don't have to use blocks; try using dominoes, checkers, bingo chips, or you can even do the activity on a table and use snack crackers.
Extension: For older children, go back further in your family's history. Using obituaries, death certificates, or other records, find out the life spans of earlier generations in your family tree. Graph out those ages, too, and try to look for patterns in longevity or recurring hereditary health problems.
©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder.
Extension: For older children, go back further in your family's history. Using obituaries, death certificates, or other records, find out the life spans of earlier generations in your family tree. Graph out those ages, too, and try to look for patterns in longevity or recurring hereditary health problems.
©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder.
