Tanya Tadenev, Computer Teacher

White Rock School

Our Favorite Season Lesson Plan

Overview: In this lesson, students create a bar graph representing the vote distribution for the seasons of the year, and insert it into a Word document with their conclusions.

Objectives: Upon completing the lesson, the student can create a graph using MS Excel chart wizard, label it, display a table along with it and copy the chart into MS Word document. The students will become familiar with the main elements of MS Excel application.

Curricular Connections: Mathematics, Language Arts.

Grade Level: 5                        Classroom Duration: One to three hours.

Materials: MS Word, MS Excel, The Graphers software, chalkboard.

Procedure:

Using a blackboard conduct a short class survey about the seasons of the year; the students will vote for each season as a favorite.

Introduce MS Excel to the students: explain columns, rows, cells and how to insert data. Start Chart Wizard, and make a bar graph “Our Favorite Season” representing the information students collected. Explore the relationship between the survey table on a blackboard and the bar graph.

Select the bar graph area and copy it. Open MS Word document (“My Favorite Season”, created earlier) and paste the chart into it.

Write a short conclusion.

Closure:

Practice making simple bar graphs and tables using The Graphers software.

Discuss similarities and differences between them.

Assessment:

Students will demonstrate a successful accomplishment of this lesson as they accurately enter their data, create a bar graph and insert it into a Word document. They will be able to draw conclusions about visual advantages of charts.