Making a Class Pictogram
Social Studies/Mathematics
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.