Counting Christmas Trees

Teaching Theme of the Week

from Education World®

Students answer questions about a simple line graph that shows total Christmas tree sales from 1993 to 2000.

Subjects: Science, Educational Technology, Math, Social Studies

Grade Levels: K-2, 3-5, 6-8

Objectives
Students will:

• study a graph showing total Christmas tree sales between 1993 and 2000;
• correctly answer at least 75 percent of questions about the graph;
• study a second graph showing the percent of people who have real and artificial Christmas trees;
• take their own survey to learn how many of their classmates' families have real trees and how many have artificial trees; nd,
• compare the data they collect to national data.

Keywords
data, graph, Christmas, tree, sales, survey, math, percent

Materials Needed

• U.S. Christmas Tree Sales work sheet
• computer with Internet Access (optional)
• National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA), Industry Statistics Web site (optional)
• Create a Graph tool (optional)

Procedure
Provide students with the U.S. Christmas Tree Sales work sheet. The work sheet provides a line graph showing Christmas tree sales from 1993 to 2000. Students study the work sheet and answer the questions on it. This work sheet can be used as a homework assignment to be corrected in class, or as a classroom activity. (See Answer Key in the Assessment section below.)

More Challenging Questions
The questions on the work sheet are targeted at students in grades 2-4. If your students are older, you might want to post on a board or chart additional questions for students to answer. Following are five possible questions:

• How many trees were sold between 1995 and 2000? (201 million)
• In how many years on the graph did sales decline from the previous year? (3 times; sales declined between 1993 and 1994, 1995 and 1996, and 1999 and 2000)
• If the average Christmas tree sold for $35 in 2000, how much total income did Christmas tree sales produce that year? ($1,120,000,000 or $1.12 billion)
• By how many million did Christmas tree sales decline between 1995 and 1996? (37 million - 31 million = 6 million) By what percent did sales drop? (rounded to16 percent)
• Between which two years on the graph did the biggest gain in sales of Christmas trees occur? (1994 and 1995) What percent increase was that? (rounded to 11 percent)

Extend the Lesson
Have students create a bar graph showing the following information about household use of Christmas trees. The information shows the percent of homes that had real, artificial, and no tree in 2000.

Real Tree ... 31 percent

Artificial Tree ... 49 percent

No Tree  ... 21 percent

Source: National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA), Industry Statistics. Note: Numbers total 101 percent because some respondents said they had both a real and artificial tree.

After creating the graph, conduct a survey of students to learn which of their families have real, artificial, and no trees. How do students' personal data compare to data collected nationally by the NCTA? Students might use the free online Create a Graph tool to make a graph that illustrates the results of their own survey.

Assessment
Have students write a paragraph or a brief essay comparing Students will score at least 80 percent on the U.S. Christmas Tree Sales work sheet. In addition, you might have students write a paragraph in their journals explaining how the data they collected compares to national data collected in 2000 by the National Christmas Tree Association.

Answer Key: 1. 32 million; 2. 1993; 3. 1998; 4. 4 million (sales grew from 33 million to 37 million); 5. up; 6. 67 million (35 million + 32 million).

Copyright © 2002, EducationWorld.com, used by permission