Line Plots: Whole Numbers and Fractions

To introduce line plots, I start with what my 5th graders should already know---line plots with whole numbers should have been covered in 4th grade.

They place an X on the line plot drawn on the board about number of siblings.  (We talk beforehand about how a sibling is what YOU CONSIDER your sibling.  Some consider stepsiblings a sibling, but others don't because that stepsibling lives so far away.  I've told them it is their family and their decision about their sibling number.)

Then, we answer the questions on the smartboard about the line plot.

     

Now that we have reviewed whole numbers, we are ready for fractions.  I give out pieces of pipe cleaner that I have cut to specific lengths.  The students measure with a ruler the length of the pipe cleaner and mark their X on the correct spot on the line plot.  I do make them tell me what they are 

choosing before they mark it so I can check their accuracy.

Then, we answer the questions on the smartboard together.  These questions are pretty deep and make them really think!

My math class period is 50 minutes and this takes almost the entire class period.  It's a great introductory lesson to line plots!