Introduction to Coordinate Graphing

Introduce elementary students to coordinate graphing through seasonal coloring activities. The fall Jack-O-Lantern activity requires students to use the grid code and crayons or markers to create a jack-o-lantern on a blank 9x9 grid. The use of letters on the horizontal axis and numbers on the vertical axis introduces young students to coordinate pairs without the confusion of the standard (h,v) format. Notice that it is important that elementary students become accustomed to listing the horizontal coordinate first as this will transfer to the Cartesian coordinates they will use in later grades.

Download the Mathwire Jack-o-Lantern graphing activity.

Download the Mathwire Mad Monster graphing activity.