“How cold is it going to be in Alaska when you are there?” is the question I seem to be asked most often these days. I decided to get my students started on the task of tracking the weather in Alaska and comparing it to what is going on here in Baltimore.  We are creating a line graph of the daily temperatures at the start, around the middle, and at the end of the trail and here in Baltimore.  Each morning two students use a weather app to check the daily high in Anchorage, Galena, Nome, and Baltimore and then add the data to our ongoing graph.  We also decided to add a snowflake stamp to the graph to show the days it snowed!  Unfortunately, we have no snowflakes on the Baltimore data line yet!

It’s a great way to introduce or review line graphs and has led to some super discussions about what the freezing point is, what it means to freeze, and what conditions have to be in play for it to snow.

Another of my favorite things to do with graphing is to have students create a story to go with a graph.  It’s a great twist to present students with a graph that shows data, but no labels or explanations and then to challenge them to tell a story to explain the data.  Here is a lesson plan you can use to have students create Iditarod themed stories to explain a line graph or a pictograph:  The Story Behind the Graph

As always, I’d love to include some student stories in the Student Tales section of the site!  So be sure to send me your awesome Iditarod graph stories!