Giant Floor Graph City

This activity can cover plotting points, naming points, plotting lines, slope/intercept form, function tables, slope, and pythagorean theorem on a coordinate plane.

 

For coordinate graphing, I made a giant floor graph using a sheet of plastic drop cloth and masking tape.  I taped the underside of the plastic and numbered each axis. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For several years now, I've used this graph as a way to get kids up and moving during our graphing unit.  However, this year I noticed some of my students having trouble following the grid lines up to each axis to find the numbers for the ordered pairs (coordinates).  Many of my students have visual/perceptual disabilities, so following a line can be difficult.  To meet that need, we came up with the following activities:

Driving on the Floor Graph

I printed basic clip art images that say "Crash!".  I laminated them and then placed them around the graph.  I brought in some Hot Wheels-style cars (Shh! Don't tell my kids!).  The students placed 2 cars at the crash site and then "drove" out along the "roads" (grid lines) until they reached each axis. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you ever seen 6th grade boys with toy cars? Ha!  They had a blast!  And we solved the problem of students not being able to follow the grid lines.

 

This idea then morphed or grew into the Floor Graph City Challenge.

 

Floor Graph City Challenge

This activity has 2 parts.  I printed clip art of basic city locations like a hospital, school, park, church, house, and store.  I laminated these, then affixed a loop of tape on the back of each.  

 

For the first part of the challenge, I placed the buildings around the graph.  Students used their toy cars to "drive" out from each location to the axis lines.  

 

For the second part, I listed ordered pairs (coordinates) for each building, and the students had to place them correctly on the graph.  They could use the toy cars to check their work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've since updated the activity to address more advanced coordinate graphing standards.  I use gray ribbon as roads and have students plot lines (using function tables, equations of a line, two points, etc).  I've included links to the Google Docs pages I use.  Feel free to download and then edit as your own.

 

Basic Coordinate Graphing Edition: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1agTSp1NOQh9noU-Bkvls3MX_ZgX0IjVAQVqV31mAKBo/edit?usp=sharing

Graphing Lines Edition: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16flu4LXxBdN1l5Rs40vknmM6LjmFMe9IninW64Ar3QQ/edit?usp=sharing