Central Tendencies

Phew! This took me longer than I anticipated! I just kept thinking of things to add to the unit! I cannot wait to use this with my students throughout this “test review” time of the year!
And finally...the Central Tendencies Unit!

This pack includes a poster for each of the central tendencies: mean, median, mode, range, and outlier. There is also a worksheet for each of them so that you can make sure the students practice the skill. It is really important to master each of the central tendencies before moving on to the rest of the packet, where they are finding mean, median, mode, range, and outlier for each set of data. That is overwhelming unless they feel comfortable with each individual skill. 

After the students have gotten comfortable with each of the skills separately, you can move on to the fun science-related topics!! There are five different sections in this packet that use a science-related topics (environment, weather, archaeology, outer space, and chemistry). These topics are not used in a ‘teaching science’ kind of way, though. I have used them in a fun and interesting way in order to engage students. For example, in the chemistry unit, the students will be using data from a recipe to answer central tendency questions. The ‘recipes’ are silly - the recipe for a “sneezer” and a “smiler” - and engaging for the students. Each science topic includes an introduction page for the teacher, a large chart (to be used whole-group, at a center, or in small group), a worksheet for assessing the students/practicing, and Common Core discussion questions related to central tendencies. 

The last section in the packet includes data set cards, with worksheets to match, for student practice. There is a set of data cards that will result in decimal answers for the mean, and a set that will result in whole numbers for the mean. You can choose one or the other, or both! 

I also use these data cards after testing when we do a lot of calculator practice work. The students need to prepare for middle school and using a calculator is actually a surprisingly difficult skill. These data cards end up as a great way to reinforce mean and range with calculator practice later in the year!

Click here to take a closer look at this unit

& ... just for fun ... I wanted to share this e-card because it sounds exactly like me: