18 Hands-On Math Plot Activities

Are you tired of seeing your students’ eye glaze over when you try to explain different types of math plots? Do you want to add some fun and hands-on experiences for your students? Look no further! We’ve got 18 hands-on activities that you can implement in the math classroom to get your students excited about their learning! Now, you can make learning about plotting more engaging than ever before! 

1. Use Money

We know that students learn best when they can connect their learning to real-life situations. Using coins to create line plots is the perfect way to engage students and encourage them to apply their learning to real-life problems. This line plot activity uses money earned from a lemonade sale and asks students to graph the earnings. 

Learn More: Teaching with a Mountain View

 2. Sticky Notes Line Plot

Have you ever thought about using sticky notes and a project to practice line plots? This activity involves just that! Project a poll on the board with a statement such as “my birthday is in”. Then, have students place their sticky notes above their answers.

Learn More: True Life Math Teachers

3. Using Straws and Paper

Use a straw and paper balls to create a scatter plot. Students will use straws and blow air to move the paper balls across the graph. When the students are finished, they will copy the scatter plot on a paper graph. 

Learn More: The Teacher Studio

4. Scatter Plot with Oreos

Use cookies to play a “Battleship” sort of game. All you need is a grid and cookies. Ask your students to place the cookies somewhere on the grid. Taking turns, each student will guess the coordinate until the cookie “ship” is sunk. 

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5. Real Life Coordinate Graphing

Create a grid on your classroom floor and give your students a list of points to plot. They can then move objects on the grid or act as the pieces themselves. 

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6. Use Stickers to Create Line Plots

This fun activity involves students measuring their feet and then using stickers to graph their classmate’s foot sizes on a line plot.

Learn More: The Teaching Studio

7. Conversation Hearts Stem and Leaf Plot

Use conversation hearts to create a stem and leaf plot for any data. It could be class height, their favorite colors, or anything they’d like! Simple ideas like this are so much fun for students!

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8. Task Cards

Task cards are a great way to engage all of your students and to get them thinking about their learning. Just be sure to have a list of the correct answers so students can self-check their work when complete!

Learn More: Teaching with a Mountain View

9. Create a Line Plot on the Floor

Create your very own line plot on your classroom floor. Using sticky notes or manipulatives, you can create a line plot lesson plan that your students will love.

Learn More: School and the City

10. Raisin Box Line Plot

This lesson is great for elementary classrooms! All you need is a box of raisins for each student and a board/wall for the line plot. Students will count how many raisins are in their box and will then use their box to create a line plot. 

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11.   Dice Roll Line plot

Dice are such an amazing resource to have for math class. Using dice, have students add the values of their answers. After finding the sum, they can  graph their answers on a line plot.

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12. Cubes Line Plot 

Stacking cubes are another great tool to have in your math classroom. You can use these cubes for many things, but stacking them to create a line plot is a great way to give your students a visual reference.

Learn More: My Teaching Pal

13. Use Poster Paper

A piece of poster paper can be a great resource to help illustrate students’ learning and understanding. You can have students graph a scatter plot, a stem and leaf plot, or even a line plot. After students create their plots, you can hang them around the classroom for students to reference.

Learn More: Team J’s Second Grade Fun

14. Coordinate Grid

This activity involves having students plot points on a coordinate in order to create a picture. Once all of the points are graphed, students can color the picture in.

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15. Connect Fourp

Connect four is a classic game that all students love! With an accompanying coordinate grid, have your students plot the point of each chip/ball they place in the grid.

Learn More: Panicked Teacher

16. Coordinate City

Have students use grid paper to create a “blueprint” of a city. You can give the students a legend, such as how many feet each square represents. Make sure students plot the points of each building as they create them. 

Learn More: Middle School Math Man

17. Scatter Plot BINGO

Use this awesome resource to play coordinate bingo with your students. Call out each coordinate and have the learners place something on that point (it can be candy, a small toy, etc.). When someone gets 6 in a row, they will yell BINGO!

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18. Candy Graphing 

Who doesn’t love candy? Using M&M’s, students can create a line plot based on the colors they have. Students can then plot the points using the data they gathered when creating their line plots.

Learn More: Mom Life Made Easy