I have been working with a class of low ability year 4 children and I tried this activity and the children took to it like a duck to water.

We were working on carroll diagrams and the children just weren't relating to it at all. So, I decided to make the lesson more practical. I got 4 mini white boards and then I wrote "I am a boy", "I am a girl", "I am 8", "I am 9" and I placed them on the wall like the titles on a carroll diagram.

I then asked the children to place themselves in the diagram where they thought they should go. The children were very enthusiastic and because it was practical they remembered it and now most of the class can answer carroll diagram questions with ease.

I also asked them questions about the information in the diagram like "how many people are 8?" or "how many girls are there?". I then asked them to write down the data in their books using a predrawn carroll diagram.

We then changed the titles on the boards, getting the children to suggest them. We came up with ice creams and the titles were chocolate or vanilla, and with sprinkles or without sprinkles. The homework set from the lesson was for them to come up with another 3 possible titles for carroll diagrams to help them sort out data.

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