Chapter 5: Counting the Treasure
Data Rain Coloring Page
"Gathering all the data!"
Numbers (1, 2, 3) raining down from the sky. Subby is catching them in a bucket.
About this page
Chapter 5 opens with a downpour, but instead of raindrops, it is raining numbers, and Subby is right underneath with a bucket. Page 61 captures the exciting, slightly overwhelming moment when observations start pouring in faster than anyone expected. Collecting data is step one of making sense of it, and having a place to put it all, a bucket, a notebook, a chart, is what keeps the flood friendly. It is also a sweet picture of why researchers love helpers like Subby the Robot, since catching every single number is exactly the kind of job a tireless robot enjoys.
The research skill
Collecting raw data comes before any chart or pattern, and Subby's bucket is a friendly picture of it. Every number that falls from the cloud gets caught and kept, even the ones that seem boring. Researchers save this unsorted pile carefully so they can sort and count it later without losing anything. Chapter 5 begins right here because counting the treasure only works if the treasure was gathered first. In school, children practice the same habit with tally marks, weather charts, and simple class surveys about pets or favorite snacks.
Try it at home
Make your own data rain with a tally sheet. Pick something that "falls" into your day, such as cars passing the window, birds landing in the yard, or people walking by. Set a timer for five minutes. Your child makes one tally mark on paper for each one spotted, bundling the marks in groups of five. When time is up, count the tallies together. Save the sheet, because tomorrow you can repeat it at the same time and compare the two buckets of data.
Talk about it while you color
- Which numbers do you think will land in Subby's bucket first?
- If it rained something from the sky at your house, what would you want it to be?
- What could the Squad do with a whole bucket full of numbers?