Math Journal Sundays - Mean, Mode, Median, and Range

For today's Math Journal Sundays post, I'm sharing the Mean, Mode, Median and Range entry we did this week.  This was our first lesson on it, so this journal entry was used as an introduction to the concept (although, students had studied some of them in previous grades).  This journal entry is based on an entry in my Interactive Math Journals 2 resource.  We used 4 index cards to complete this entry, but the resource linked above includes the 4 cards needed for the resource.

We started out on the right side of the page by defining mean, mode, median, and range on the cards.  To help them remember, I taught them this little rhyme based on Hey Diddle Diddle, which we wrote at the bottom of the page.  When the cards were complete, we punched a hole in each corner, and then attached the cards to the page with a brass fastener.

We did a traditional left side of the page thinking for the output, but for the proof/application, I wanted to work together to solve for mean, mode, median, and range, using the definitions we came up with.  We collected a quick set of data (I asked them how many markers they had in their desk) to work with, and got to work.  It was a perfect way to introduce these concepts to them.

The next day we continued with our study of mean, mode, median, and range with a special OREO day.  :)  This is one of my absolute favourite days of the year ... cookies and math ... can't beat it!  In fact, my own daughters wanted to get in on the action the night before ... how could I say no?  If you want to read more about our Oreo Stacking Challenge, it's in my original Interactive Math Journal, and I have a blog post you can read more at HERE.