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Counting Christmas Trees

 

Subjects

  • Educational Technology
  • Mathematics:
    Applied Math
    Arithmetic
    Statistics
  • Science:
    Agriculture
  • Social Studies:
    Economics
    Holidays

Grade

  • K-2
  • 3-5
  • 6-8

 

Brief Description

Students answer questions about a simple line graph that shows total Christmas tree sales from 1993 to 2000.

Objectives

Students will

  • study a graph showing total Christmas tree sales between 1993 and 2000.
  • correctly answer at least 75 percent of questions about the graph.
  • study a second graph showing the percent of people who have real and artificial Christmas trees.
  • take their own survey to learn how many of their classmates families have real trees and how many have artificial trees.
  • compare the data they collect to national data.

Keywords

data, graph, Christmas, tree, sales, survey, math, percent

Materials Needed

 

 

Lesson Plan

Provide students with the U.S. Christmas Tree Sales work sheet. The work sheet provides a line graph showing Christmas tree sales from 1993 to 2000. Students study the work sheet and answer the questions on it. This work sheet can be used as a homework assignment to be corrected in class, or as a classroom activity. (See Answer Key in the Assessment section below.)

More Challenging Questions

The questions on the work sheet are targeted at students in grades 2-4. If your students are older, you might want to post on a board or chart additional questions for students to answer. Following are five possible questions:

  • How many trees were sold between 1995 and 2000? (201 million)
  • In how many years on the graph did sales decline from the previous year? (3 times; sales declined between 1993 and 1994, 1995 and 1996, and 1999 and 2000)
  • If the average Christmas tree sold for $35 in 2000, how much total income did Christmas tree sales produce that year? ($1,120,000,000 or $1.12 billion)
  • By how many million did Christmas tree sales decline between 1995 and 1996? (37 million - 31 million = 6 million) By what percent did sales drop? (rounded to16 percent)
  • Between which two years on the graph did the biggest gain in sales of Christmas trees occur? (1994 and 1995) What percent increase was that? (rounded to 11 percent)

 

Extend the Lesson

Have students create a bar graph showing the following information about household use of Christmas trees. The information shows the percent of homes that had real, artificial, and no tree in 2000.

 

Real Tree 31 percent
Artificial Tree 49 percent
No Tree 21 percent

 

Source: National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA), Industry Statistics. Note: Numbers total 101 percent because some respondents said they had both a real and artificial tree.

 

 

After creating the graph, conduct a survey of students to learn which of their families have real, artificial, and no trees. How do students personal data compare to data collected nationally by the NCTA? Students might use the free online Create a Graph tool to make a graph that illustrates the results of their own survey.

Assessment

Have students write a paragraph or a brief essay comparing Students will score at least 80 percent on the U.S. Christmas Tree Sales work sheet. In addition, you might have students write a paragraph in their journals explaining how the data they collected compares to national data collected in 2000 by the National Christmas Tree Association.

Answer Key: 1. 32 million; 2. 1993; 3. 1998; 4. 4 million (sales grew from 33 million to 37 million); 5. up; 6. 67 million (35 million + 32 million).

Lesson Plan Source

Education World

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

LANGUAGE ARTS: English
GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.4 Communication Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.7 Evaluating Data
NL-ENG.K-12.8 Developing Research Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills

MATHEMATICS: Number and Operations
GRADES Pre-K - 2
NM-NUM.PK-2.1 Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships Among Numbers, and Number Systems
NM-NUM.PK-2.2 Understand Meanings of Operations and How They Relate to One Another
NM-NUM.PK-2.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates
GRADES 3 - 5
NM-NUM.3-5.1 Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships Among Numbers, and Number Systems
NM-NUM.3-5.2 Understand Meanings of Operations and How They Relate to One Another
NM-NUM.3-5.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates
GRADES 6 - 8
NM-NUM.6-8.1 Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships Among Numbers, and Number Systems
NM-NUM.6-8.2 Understand Meanings of Operations and How They Relate to One Another
NM-NUM.6-8.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates
GRADES 9 - 12
NM-NUM.9-12.1 Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships Among Numbers, and Number Systems
NM-NUM.9-12.2 Understand Meanings of Operations and How They Relate to One Another
NM-NUM.9-12.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates

MATHEMATICS: Data Analysis and Probability
GRADES Pre-K - 2
NM-DATA.PK-2.1 Formulate Questions That Can Be Addressed With Data and Collect, Organize, and Display Relevant Data to Answer
GRADES 3 - 5
NM-DATA.3-5.1 Formulate Questions That Can Be Addressed With Data and Collect, Organize, and Display Relevant Data to Answer
NM-DATA.3-5.2 Select and Use Appropriate Statistical Methods to Analyze Data
GRADES 6 - 8
NM-DATA.6-8.1 Formulate Questions That Can Be Addressed With Data and Collect, Organize, and Display Relevant Data to Answer
NM-DATA.6-8.2 Select and Use Appropriate Statistical Methods to Analyze Data

MATHEMATICS: Connections
GRADES Pre-K - 12
NM-CONN.PK-12.3 Recognize and Apply Mathematics in Contexts Outside of Mathematics

MATHEMATICS: Representation
GRADES Pre-K - 12
NM-REP.PK-12.1 Create and Use Representations to Organize, Record, and Communicate Mathematical Ideas

SOCIAL SCIENCES: Economics
GRADES K - 4
NSS-EC.K-4.1 Productive Resources
NSS-EC.K-4.7 Markets and Market Prices
NSS-EC.K-4.9 Competition in the Marketplace
GRADES 5 - 8
NSS-EC.5-8.1 Productive Resources
NSS-EC.5-8.7 Markets and Market Prices
NSS-EC.5-8.9 Competition in the marketplace
GRADES 9 - 12
NSS-EC.9-12.1 Productive Resources
NSS-EC.9-12.7 Markets and Market Prices
NSS-EC.9-12.9 Competition in the Marketplace

TECHNOLOGY
GRADES K - 12
NT.K-12.1 Basic Operations and Concepts
NT.K-12.3 Technology Productivity tools

See more lessons and resources from Education World at our December Holidays Around the World Web page.

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Last updated 12/1/2014