Pinecone Sorting and Graphing

We continue our countdown to Christmas for day 13 of Advent. I’m sharing a Christmas science idea with you at the beginning of each day until Christmas. Day 13’s activity is Pinecone Sorting and Graphing.

Pinecone Sorting and Graphing

Aiden and I headed outside on a relatively nice {but cold} day. We searched for more pinecones to add to our collection. When we returned inside, I set up a sorting invitation. Sorting is a classification skill.

I wrote small, medium, and large on 3 different pieces of paper placed next to the pile of pinecones.

I told Aiden what the papers said and asked him to pick out the smallest pinecones. Then, he sorted the remaining pinecones into medium and large piles. He rearranged a few of the pinecones until he was satisfied with their classification. He took one he had originally placed in the small pile and moved it to the medium pile. He also had to decide if some were medium or large {sorting can be subjective sometimes}.

Next, we created a graph of our pinecone sizes.

Aiden counted the pinecones and added stars to the graph to represent the number of pinecones for each size.

We also measured the length of some of the pinecones. It’s another great way to compare the sizes. Measuring also can give you more precise categories. You can easily define the sizes small, medium, and large by adding a measurement requirement.

I’ll see you tomorrow for Day 14’s Christmas science activity.

More Christmas Activities for Kids

• Catch all of our Christmas Science Advent Calendar ideas.
• Explore pine needles and Christmas trees and take our Christmas science challenge.
• Turn your child’s art into a great Christmas project with these 15 Christmas ideas with children’s art.
• Check out all of our Christmas ideas.

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