Student Surveys-A Math Center

 Surveys are one of my students' most favorite centers to choose. I actually use them during my "Can-do" center time. But, they can be used for any type of Math center. (You can read more about my "Can-do" centers HERE).

Do you do surveys with your students??? If you don't, this is a great way to start and the kids LOVE it!!!! Plus it is takes pretty much ZERO time to prep this simple math center, which is a BONUS for us teachers, right??? :)

Here's how it works:

The student will grab the survey sheet for the week. They will also grab a clipboard and a writing utensil or two and.....off they go!!!!

This is my ONLY center where students are EVER allowed to continually move around the room. They just walk around to different students and ask them a quick question....(the one you see below was for our 100th Day unit and it was "Can you count to 100?") The responder would answer "yes" or "no". The surveyor records the data with a quick tally mark and moves on.

After the surveyor has asked the correct amount of people, he/she will graph the data.

Once the data is collected and graphed, then they will analyze their data. They have to tell me one thing about what they found out. Many times they will tell me which one had more or less. On the survey below, the student just told me that he found out that "9 people liked Cracker Jacks". Which, to me, is perfectly amazing and fabulous for a 5-year-old to be able to do all of this independently!!

Check out this pie graph!!!! My Kinders were already doing these independently in January!!! It just AMAZES me what they can do when you provide them with the opportunities!!!!!!! We, as teachers all introduce graphing and different kinds of graphs within our units. We did a big Pie graph as a class at Thanksgiving time and again in December to show which part of the Gingerbread Man we ate first. Why not provide them with the tools to create the graphs themselves!?!? It's so important for them to make those connections!!!! Keep the learning going!!!!!!!!!!!

My surveys pack exposes them to many different kinds of graphs....bar graphs that go from left to right, and ones that go from bottom to top, pictographs, and pie graphs!

If you'd like to check this pack out, just click on the picture below!!! The survey pack comes with surveys for just about EVERY theme throughout the year that you could think of (41 of them to be exact :) !!!

Now, do these skills just come automatically?!? NO!!!! These surveys start out simple!!!! The skills build on each other. In the preview below, you will see that the fire survey is just a graph and some questions. So, they aren't using tally marks just yet. The surveys for the themes at the beginning of the year are even more simple. Things like: ask 10 friends and color the smiley or frown face. We're building the skills.

And, as always, you MUST introduce the concept to your class first. Do a couple of them together, as a class. You will be amazed at how quickly they get the hang of it!! It will become one of your students' most favorite centers!!! They LOVE that they get to move around the room, carrying a clipboard and asking all of their friends' opinions!!!