4th Grade Teacher By NB

I have an excellent hands-on idea for teaching stem-and-leaf plot.

Materials: index cards with two digit numbers from the tens, thirties, and fourties (i.e. 21, 22, 22, 27, 30, 30, 31, 32, 32, 32, 40, 43, 45). Write

the tens places for the twenties in yellow (the ones will be written on small stickie notes and placed in the ones place); the tens places for the thirties are blue, and the fourties places will be red. You will also need a blank stem-and-leaf plot (t-chart with "Stem" and "Leaf" written at top). Each group of four students receives a stack of these cards and a chart. First

- students sort the cards according to colors. They will figure out that they have actually sorted according to tens places. Have them sort the cards from least to greatest. They need to place these stacks on their stem-and-leaf plots.

Next - Discuss the fact that only tens belong in this column (stem), so they have to remove their ones (stickies) and place them next to their index cards in the leaf (ones) column. Make sure they keep the numbers in order.

Now you can discuss what each number is worth. They will, at first, tell you that each number is worth only the one digit in the leaf column. Discuss that, since they took the ones away from the index cards, they are still a part of that number (i.e. worth 21, 40, etc.).

Once they have realized that each tens digit (stem) belongs with each ones digit (leaves), they can begin searching or mode, median, and range.

I teach an inclusion classroom and the students loved this activity! Have fun!

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