Today I demonstrated how to conduct a simple survey to our Early Learning Kindergarten class.  I drew 2 columns, each with 10 squares in it.  At the bottom of one column, I had a smiley face.  At the bottom of the other, I drew a sad face.  At the top of the page, I drew an ice cream cone.  I asked the children who liked ice cream, and then wrote their names in the boxes.  Once I had both columns with some names in them (there was only one in the “don’t like” column!), I asked if more people liked ice cream or didn’t like ice cream.  We reviewed the concept of more/less. 

I printed off some copies of the survey and put them in the math centre with some clipboards and pencils.  I told the students they could do surveys anytime they chose to.  Some surveys had pictures of ice creams, some had pictures of pizza and some had pictures of spiders.  This gave the children the ability to choose which one they wished to do. I also showed the children how to make a checkmark, or an “x” in the squares.  This gave them the option of completing a survey more easily if a child wasn’t ready to print other students’ names. 

The children enjoyed going around the room and asking their friends questions.  This activity also gave some of the more quiet, and shy students an opportunity to approach more children and practise their social skills.