Edith’s Playground Poll

Edith’s class could choose a game for Friday afternoon. There were three ideas: a treasure hunt, a ball game or chalk drawing. Mr West asked Edith and Leo to collect twelve votes. “One vote each,” he said. “Then we can compare them.”

Edith drew three columns on a sheet. Leo offered a coloured square to each voter. They put every square in the column for the chosen game. Edith kept the squares the same size. Each one stood for one vote.

When everyone had voted, the treasure hunt had six squares. The ball game had four. Chalk drawing had two. Leo counted all the squares to check. Six, four and two made twelve, so every vote was included.

One square had slipped a little higher than the others in the chalk column. That column looked taller than it should. Edith moved it down so both squares touched. She checked that all three columns started on the same line.

“Now the heights match the votes,” said Leo. The treasure hunt column was tallest. Edith compared it with the ball game. Six was two more than four. Mr West asked which game had half the votes. Edith looked at the twelve squares.

They laid the twelve squares in a row to check. “The treasure hunt has six out of twelve,” she said. “Six and six would make twelve, so that’s half.” Leo compared the other games. The ball game had twice as many votes as chalk drawing: four compared with two.

Not everyone had chosen the treasure hunt. Mr West listened to the students who preferred a quieter game. They agreed that anyone could draw clues with chalk at the hunt’s base. Edith added the plan below their chart.

On Friday, the class searched for clues around the playground. Leo stayed near the chalk table for a while, then joined Edith by the final clue. “Our chart helped us choose,” she said. “And talking helped us make room for everyone.”