What's the Scoop?

Who likes plain vanilla ice cream? How about pecan mocha fudge? Or cotton candy? Create a 3-D classroom graph with Crayola® Model Magic® to show which ice cream flavors are tops.

• 1.

  Take a classroom poll to find out each student’s favorite ice cream flavor. Arrange your findings in a picture graph to make it easy to tell which flavor has more, or fewer, or the same number of votes.

• 2.

  On oaktag or posterboard, use Crayola Washable Markers to write the title of your graph in capital letters along the top. Use markers to write the names of the flavors along the bottom of the graph.

• 3.

  Use Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils to draw a small ice cream dish (or cone) on oaktag. Cut it out with Crayola Scissors. Use it as a pattern to draw identical dishes above each flavor name. Color the dish with Crayola Gel Markers.

• 4.

  Experiment with blending two or three colors of Model Magic to create your own ice cream colors. Lightly twist two colors together for a swirled effect. Add white to any color to get an icy, pastel look. To make scoops of ice cream, roll a small ball of Model Magic to represent each vote. Flatten slightly and air-dry overnight.

• 5.

  Use Crayola School Glue to glue scoops in place on the bar graph. Air-dry the graph flat.

• 6.

  With markers, mark the numbers of votes along the left side of the graph, starting at the bottom and going up. Make sure each scoop lines up with a number. Add a key indicating how many scoops equal one vote for an ice cream flavor.

• 7.

  What does your graph show? Explain it to your classmates. Which flavor received the most votes? The least? Did any flavors receive the same number of votes? How many more votes did the most popular receive than the least popular flavor? How many people vo

Benefits

• Students collect data, identify the most popular ice cream flavors, and record the results on a picture graph, using colored Model Magic to add dimension.
• Students individually analyze their data to determine which ice cream flavor has more, less, or the same number of votes, and present their findings during a class discussion.

Adaptations

• Do a school-wide or families poll to discover favorite ice cream flavors.
• Find out how new flavors are invented.
• Choose an appropriate day and ask for permission to make and sell homemade ice cream in the school cafeteria or for a school event. Take orders, determine needed ingredients, take out a loan (maybe from the school’s petty cash fund), and shop for ingredients. Elicit help from families or staff members who have ice cream makers. Make the ice cream and allow it to cure. After the sale, repay the loan, write thank you letters to all who helped, and use profits to purchase your own classroom ice cream maker.
• Individually collect data and organize it into picture graphs that others can interpret. Topics could include: favorite books; preferred activities at recess; walks/rides to school; numbers of brothers/sisters; eye color; hair color; birth month; bedtimes; breakfast foods; type of shoe worn that day; lengths of names, attributes of rocks. Display your graph with a written analysis of your findings.
• Discover other graph forms. Create bar, pie, or line graphs from the data displayed in picture graphs.