Five pages on the mode and the mean. Page 1 explains that the mode is the answer that shows up most often, then finds the mode of two tally charts and two pictographs and how many votes it has. Page 2 finds the mode of two bar graphs and two line plots, one with two modes and one with no mode, then asks students to circle the sentence that tells what a mode means. Page 3 finds the mode of four lists and two tables, where the mode is the value and not its count, then asks students to write lists of 5 numbers with a mode of 4, with two modes and with no mode. Page 4 shows the mean as a fair share: students draw towers of cubes all the same height, then share stickers, marbles, crackers and buttons fairly. Page 5 finds the mean of six small sets by adding and dividing, then finds the mean and the mode of two data sets and decides which one a sentence is about.
Take a quick class vote, such as a favorite fruit, and record it as a tally chart. Ask which answer got the most votes and name it the mode. Then ask what it would mean if two answers tied. For the mean, give groups towers of linking cubes of different heights and let them move cubes until every tower is the same height; count the cubes in one tower. Then add all the cubes and divide by the number of towers, and compare.
Count something together over a week, such as books read or minutes outside each day, and write the numbers in a list. Which number shows up most often? Then share snacks or coins fairly between family members and talk about how many each person gets, and how adding and dividing gives the same answer.
This pack supports the following Common Core State Standards for Mathematics:
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The mode of data in graphs, line plots, tables and lists, and the mean as a fair share. Students find the mode, including data with two modes or none, say what it tells, level towers of cubes, and find the mean by adding and dividing.
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