Witch Hat Glyph

Here I go again with the witch hats! This is my third post involving witch hats and there are still more to come! This is a glyph I created for my students.  Glyphs are fun way for students to begin to understand graphing and collecting data. Here is how it works:

Preparation

Cut several black, purple and orange circles about the size of a dinner plate.  You will need mostly black, but have a few of the other colors ready just in case.

Find an image of spiders you like. I searched Google for “free spider clipart,” found one I liked, put it into a word document and copied it several times. Cut them apart for individual students to use later with their glyphs.

Creating the Glyphs with Students

Ask the children the first set of prompts, “You know what your Halloween costume will be this year/You are unsure of what your Halloween costume will be this year/You will not be dressing up for Halloween this year.”

Each student’s answer will determine what color his/her hat will be.  Students that know their costume will use black paper for the hat. Students who are unsure use purple paper and students who will not be dressing up use orange. As you can imagine most of my students knew their costume and used black paper. Only one student was unsure and no one was skipping the costume this year.

Once each child has his paper, he cuts it as shown below. The smaller piece of paper is set aside for use at another time.

He then rolls his paper to form a cone shape and glues the edges together.

Once each student’s cone is complete, continue asking the other prompts on the list to determine what items should be added to their witch hats.

Another example is:

“Will your costume be scary/cute/pretty?”  Scary costumes get a yellow band around the hat, cute costumes get blue and pretty get green. This part was a little tricky for the kids to do on their own, but with some help and some problem solving they all were able to add the band to their hats.

We continued on through all the witch’s hat glyph questions until we were done.  We then added the hat brims and voila, our witch’s hats were done.

Gathering Data from the Glyph

Making the hats was fun, but so is using them to find out about our classmates. Here are a few examples of what kind of information we can gather.

Example One

From this sort, we can see how many students “like treats better than tricks.”  If a student added a purple buckle to their hat they like “treats better than tricks.” If they added an orange buckle (not shown), they liked “tricks better than treats.”

Example Two

Below shows which students feel that Halloween is their favorite holiday because they added a spider to their hats. Students who liked a different holiday best, left the spider off.

Example Three

The photos below show the hats sorted by band color which explained above tells whether that student’s costume would be scary, cute or pretty.

Note: The glyph activity includes two other questions not shown in this post.

So Then What?

And now you can take it one step farther.  Using the photo above, ask the students a series of questions likes those that follow:

Of the students whose costume will be cute (blue band), how many like Halloween best (spider)? Answer: 2

Of the students who think their costume will be scary (yellow band),  how many like tricks better than treats (orange buckle)? Answer: 2

Of the students who think their costume will be pretty (green band), how many like treats better than tricks (purple buckle) and like Halloween best? Answer: 1

The questions that can be asked are endless. And, if you are so inclined, can be graphed as well.

 

Finally…

If creating a  3D hat is not something you have time for in your classroom, but still like the idea, the activity comes with paper hat pages that you can use the same way. See photo below.

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This glyph is available at the following link:

Witch Hat Glyph from BMTM

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AFTER SCHOOL LINK UP

The After School Link Up is a great place to share ideas and to find new ideas to do with your children after school or in your homeschool.  The After School Link Up goes live every Monday. So, if you are a blogger, an educator or just someone looking for some good ideas, be sure to stop by Boy Mama Teacher Mama (or the other co-hosts) on Mondays and see what others have to share.

I had fun visiting the posts from last weeks linky party. There are so many wonderful ideas out there!

Here are a few of my favorites….

Addition Crawling Game from Toddler Approved

Looking for a few fun ways to teach your child to recognize his numbers? To count? To add? Try this idea from Toddler Approved!

 

Fun Sight Word Practice: Ghost Zappers

Another great way to practice a very important skill- reading sight words!  Getting kids moving and reading can really help solidify learning.

And now the linky…

What do you have to share?

Please link up Activities for Elementary School Age Students Only

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We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventures that you are doing to enrich your children’s lives after their day at school, homeschool or on the weekend! When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up you’re giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board or Feature on our After School Party in the upcoming weeks!

2013 After School Party HOSTS

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