Water for Schools
Menu

Worksheet Grade 2 Social Studies & Civics

Sandpiper Beach Cleanup Day: A Grade 2 Bar Graph

A grade 2 worksheet built on a fictional town cleanup day, where students draw and read a four-category bar graph of collected litter and add and compare within 100.

Objectives

  1. Students will draw a four-category bar graph on a single-unit scale and compare its values.
  2. Students will add and subtract graph values within 100.
  3. Students will describe one way a cleanup day improves a town's beach and creek.

Vocabulary

Key words: bar graph, litter, cleanup, compare, total

Teacher overview

Four classes in the fictional town of Sandpiper Beach spent a morning picking up litter along the sand and the creek bank, and they sorted what they found into four piles before counting it. The counts run from 12 to 31, which keeps every put-together and compare problem inside the grade's within-100 range while still feeling like a real morning's work. The last three items turn the same data toward civics, asking what the cleanup changed for the town and what the town could do next.

Print the page with a blank single-unit graph grid beside the table, with the four category labels along the bottom and a vertical scale numbered by ones to at least 35, so students draw the bars themselves before answering. Drawing the graph is part of the grade 2 graphing standard, and building the bars from the table gives students something to compare by eye in items 1 and 2.

Sandpiper Beach Cleanup Day: A Grade 2 Bar Graph — Grade 2 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read aloud: Four classes cleaned up Sandpiper Beach. They put what they found into four piles. Then they counted each pile. The counts are in the table. Use the table to draw one bar for each pile on the graph grid. Each square stands for one thing. Then answer the questions.

Pile How many they found
Cups 24
Bags 18
Straws 31
Cans 12
  1. Which pile had the most in it?
  2. Which pile had the fewest in it?
  3. The classes found 24 cups and 18 bags. How many cups and bags did they find in all?
  4. They found 31 straws and 12 cans. How many more straws than cans did they find?
  5. They found 31 straws and 24 cups. How many straws and cups did they find in all?
  6. Add all four piles. How many things did the classes find in all?
  7. The classes want to fill one big bag with 100 things. They have 85 things now. How many more do they need?
  8. Straws blow off the sand and land in the creek. Tell one reason that is bad for the creek.
  9. The town wants fewer cups on the sand next year. Name one thing the town could put by the beach path to help.
  10. Cleanup day made the beach better for the whole town. Tell one way people can keep it that way.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: Straws.
    The straw bar is the tallest at 31, which is more than 24 cups, 18 bags, and 12 cans.
  2. Answer: Cans.
    The can bar is the shortest at 12, which is fewer than every other pile.
  3. Answer: 42 things.
    24 + 18 = 42. Students may add 24 + 20 = 44, then take away 2.
  4. Answer: 19 straws.
    31 - 12 = 19. Counting up from 12 to 31 gives the same difference.
  5. Answer: 55 things.
    31 + 24 = 55. Adding the tens gives 50, and adding the ones gives 5 more.
  6. Answer: 85 things.
    24 + 18 + 31 + 12 = 85. Adding in order gives 42, then 73, then 85.
  7. Answer: 15 things.
    100 - 85 = 15. Counting up from 85 to 100 also gives 15.
  8. Answer: Litter can hurt animals in the creek.
    Accept any reasonable reason, such as fish or birds swallowing a straw, litter blocking the water, or the creek looking dirty for people who walk beside it.
  9. Answer: A trash can or a recycling bin.
    Accept any workable idea placed near the path, such as a bin, a sign asking people to carry litter out, or a fountain where people can refill a bottle instead of taking a cup.
  10. Answer: Carry your litter home.
    Accept any repeatable habit, such as taking litter to a bin, joining the next cleanup day, or reminding a family member not to leave cups on the sand.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the bars already drawn on grid paper so they can count squares with a finger instead of holding the numbers in their heads. Work items 3 and 4 together as a small group, then let them try items 5 through 7 alone. Accept spoken answers for items 8 through 10.

Extension

Ask these students to add a fifth pile of their own, choose a count under 20 for it, and rewrite item 6 so the new total is correct. They can also write one compare question about the new pile for a partner to answer.

ELL supports

Bring in one real example of each pile, a cup, a bag, a straw, and a can, and set them on the board ledge under the graph headings. Pair the words most, fewest, in all, and more with the same hand motions all week. Provide the frame "They found ___ ___." for the number answers.

Extensions

Have the class count the litter in one hallway or one corner of the schoolyard for three days, graph it the same way, and take the graph to the principal with one request. Data the students collect themselves gives the civics question at the end of this worksheet a local subject.