Graphing Pets in Preschool

We had a great time graphing all about our pets last week as a part of our Pets theme.  We did several different types of graphs.  First we graphed who had a pet and who didn't:

I used a half-sheet of poster board and name labels for this one, taping on the graph categories (the yes and no) and the graph title.  I wrote all of their names on the labels ahead of time, and then I had them find their name and put their sticker on the appropriate side.  This graph is a good size to put outside our classroom door at the end of the day for the parents to see.   Perhaps the Little People realize that I like to do this, because one little girl who has told us stories about her cats and dogs all year finally had to 'fess up that she doesn't actually have any pets.  (I knew that she did not because I asked her mom a while ago, but wondered what she would say when she had to stick her name down on a "yes" or a "no" side.)

You don't see it on this graph (because I recreated the graph at home to take a picture of it), but after everyone makes their pick, we count how many people picked one category or another, and then one Little Person comes up and writes that number on that side of the graph.

The next day we graphed what kind of pet everyone had.  Dogs and "no pets" definitely won on this graph, although if I had to do it again, I would have more than one card for each child, so they could put their name in more than one column if they had more than one type of pet.

I used my "graphing" pocket chart for this one.  It's actually a "hundreds" chart, but it works perfectly for graphing.  The only thing I would do differently next time is have the Little People write their names on the cards themselves.

Next we graphed whether their pet was an inside pet or an outside pet.  When at first they had trouble with understanding what this meant, I asked whether their pet slept outside or inside.   If they didn't have a pet, they got to tell me what kind of pet they might like to have some day, and whether they would want it to sleep inside or outside.

For this graph I used my large white board and our magnetized popsicle name sticks.

Finally, to make the playing field level for all (meaning that I gave both the pet owners and the non-pet owners equal opportunity) I asked them what kind of make-believe pet they would like to have out of the ones shown on the graph.  They especially seemed to enjoy this.

I used chart paper and labels for this graph, taping the pet cards on at the bottom and the graph title at the top.

The pictures and graph titles for all of these graphs are my printables that I just in my teacher stores.
You can see them in the store here - thanks for looking!