Excel Graphing Classroom Birthdays with Digital Student Directions

Give your students a chance to get to know their classmates, comparing their birthday celebration data in a way that's real and relevant!

This Class Birthdays Excel Project can be an engaging way to:

* integrate technology

* introduce, extend, or enrich a math topic of study

* introduce students to creating sheets and charts using Excel

The classroom-tested product file includes:

* class survey, using Google Forms, to find out the month in which each student celebrates a birthday

* student project directions sheet, in checklist form, using Google Slides

* rubric to score each completed graph, using Google Forms

* Teacher Notes to share my classroom management experiences with you

* I’ve used this Classroom Birthdays Excel project:

- as a back to school project, proudly displaying all student work on a bulletin board to share with families for Back to School/ Open House night

- as an introduction to Excel sheets and charts

- as an end of year activity

* although the classroom birthday data being graphed was the same for each student, the birthday-themed clipart images selected made each graph personal and unique

* my students were able to complete this project with two or three 15-minute small group center sessions

* My 5th graders completed this project as a performance task- small groups of students working independently on Chromebooks or desktop computers in rotating 15-minute turns during my 90-minute Math block, working at their own pace through the project checklist directions

* I’ve used this project with younger students, or students needing adaptations, in small groups as well- reading the project checklist directions aloud to those small groups for a 10 or 15-minute rotating center turn

See student work on my classroom web site:

http://www.mrsdingman.com/ExcelGraphing.html#anchor_221