conduct a simple survey

A great, real world math activity for young kids is to conduct a survey. For dinner on this particular night, we could not decide which pasta shape to eat - so my 5 year old used this simple table to tally everyone's vote. 

If I pulled a chart like this from a workbook, or printed a cute printable from the internet, he would have not been nearly as enthusiastic as he was with this project. We had a real need (which pasta to eat) and he could solve it for our family while I made the sauce.


Real world = real learning around here.  This is one way that unschooling works.

I drew the simple chart, including a picture representation of the two pastas we had on hand and explained to him to make a mark under each for each person's vote. It was very close, with the kids all voting one way and the adults the other. I guess we really are outnumbered!

When he was done, he counted the votes and wrote the number of each (self correcting that annoying three) and cheers went up from the kids whose choice won. The whole thing took literally 5 minutes - but the engagement was high and the skills acquisition effortless, which is how the majority of learning should be.