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Graphing Attributes and Genres of Books


Yesterday I teamed up with one of my librarians to work with a group of 2nd graders. We were able to combine multiple SOL topics (Virginia standards) into ONE 30 minute lesson!

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First, students broke up into groups of 4 and got to sort a pile of books into any 3 categories/attributes of their choice. (Science SOL 2.1) All the students came up with some interesting ways to sort their books! 


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Everyone had fun listening to each group share out their idea! Perhaps our favorite sorting attributes came from this group. Students sorted by the categories: fiction, nonfiction and BOTH. (Reading SOL 2.8+2.9) Their "both" group included Magic Tree House books that do have an element of each! So clever ;)

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Next, students partnered up within their group of four and signed into one laptop. We used Excel to graph the number of books that fit in each category. (Math SOL 2.17) Since we only had a small amount of time for the lesson, I created {THIS} Excel template that the students accessed through the Student Server. All they had to do was type in the names of their three categories and add the amount for each. The graph was generated automatically!


This lesson was EASY yet effective. Even the primary kids are able to work with Excel spreadsheets. It was a great first time exposure to working in spreadsheet cells. Next time we will show them how to insert their own graph of choice.