Making a Class Pictogram
Children will compare the kinds of groups they belong
to in their school or neighborhood to help them understand the nature of social
groups and their roles as members of various groups.
Background
For this activity you will want to review the
criteria that makes a social group: people gathered together with particular
interests or roles, such as a family, school club, sports team, or book group.
What
You Need
-
scrap paper and pencils
-
poster-size piece of construction
paper
-
five white, two-inch squares of
construction paper for each child
-
colored pencils, crayons, or
markers
What to
Do
-
Remind children that when they
make sets in math they make groups of like things (example: a set of cubes,
a set of crayons, a set of paper clips). Explain that people are members of
groups, too.
-
Review the kinds of groups that
exist in the school and neighborhood such as recess groups, lunch groups,
subject area groups (reading and math), school clubs, scouting groups,
sports teams, car pools, bus riders, and walkers.
-
Have children each list on scrap
paper five groups they belong to, including their families.
-
Then make a list on the board of
pictures or symbols that represent each of the groups children have
identified. For example, a reading-group symbol could be a picture of an
open book, a scouts symbol could be a picture of the scouting fleur-de-lis,
a family symbol could be a group of smiley faces, and so forth. Have
children copy the symbols onto squares of construction paper to match their
personal lists of groups.
-
Make a class pictogram, pasting
children's paper-symbol squares on a labeled chart to show how many students
belong to each group.
Teaching Options
-
Children could create individual
pictograms to show the groups they belong to. Hang the pictograms in pairs
and encourage children to compare with their classmates the groups to which
they belong.
-
Have children discuss the reason
they belong to each group. Invite them to think of the characteristics of
each group. For example, recess groups may change membership depending on
the games children play or the absence of a child who is out of school on a
particular day. Reading groups usually have the same membership from day to
day, as do family groups. Talk about how family group activities differ from
school or club group activities.
Copyright © 1997-2002 Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights
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