Education Technology


Buttons, Buttons, Buttons

Activity Overview

In this activity, students sort and classify buttons by their attributes and display their findings on a graphing mat. They represent this information in the form a graph of their choice. They learn to use inequalities and compare quantities of buttons having specific attributes. Students also, explore the use of a constant function to do skip counting.

Before the Activity

  • See the attached PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity
  • Print pages 181- 189 from the attached PDF file for your class
  • During the Activity

    Distribute the page to the class.

    Follow the Activity procedures:
    Activity A:

  • Discuss the attributes of different buttons covering both similarities and differences


  • Activity B:
  • Sort the buttons by the chosen attribute and place them on the graphing mat in appropriate groups
  • Use the calculator to count the different types of buttons


  • Activity C:
  • Count the number of red and white buttons
  • Find the difference between the number of red and white buttons
  • Enter the inequality and check the expression with the calculator
  • Explore further inequalities using the calculator


  • Activity D:
  • Choose an attribute to graph
  • Record the information on the graph


  • Activity E:
  • Use the calculator to count all the holes on the two-hole buttons
  • Use the constant function +2 and skip count to count all the holes in the two-hole buttons
  • After the Activity

    Review student results:

  • As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging
  • Re-teach concepts as necessary