Teacher note: Group by Zodiac signs

This “unplugged” activity will give students practice on “tracing through” elif statements.

Summary

Twelve students stand in line side-by-side holding up signs with zodiac sign dates on them. The rest of the students start at one end of the line, and, for each sign, check to see if their birthday falls within that zodiac sign period. If it does, the student stops and stands behind that sign. At the end, all the students will be grouped according to their zodiac signs!

Zodiac Sign	Date	Sign characteristics
Aries	March 21 - April 19	Active, Demanding, Determined, Effective, Ambitious
Taurus	April 20 - May 20	Security, Subtle strength, Appreciation, Instruction, Patience
Gemini	May 21 - June 20	Communication, Indecision, Inquisitive, Intelligent, Changeable
Cancer	June 21 - July 22	Emotion, Diplomatic, Intensity, Impulsive, Selective
Leo	July 23 - August 22	Ruling, Warmth, Generosity, Faithful, Initiative
Virgo	August 23 - September 22	Analyzing, Practical, Reflective, Observation, Thoughtful
Libra	September 23 - October 22	Balance, Justice, Truth, Beauty, Perfection
Scorpio	October 23 - November 21	Transient, Self-Willed, Purposeful, Unyielding
Sagittarius	November 22 - December 21	Philosophical, Motion, Experimentation, Optimism
Capricorn	December 22 - January 19	Determination, Dominance, Perservering, Practical, Willful
Aquarius	January 20 - February 18	Knowledge, Humanitarian, Serious, Insightful, Duplicitous
Pisces	February 19 - March 20	Fluctuation, Depth, Imagination, Reactive, Indecisive

from http://www.whats-your-sign.com/zodiac-sign-dates.html

To prepare

• 1 if sign:

if birthday falls between March 21 to April 19:
    Your sign is Aries

• 10 elif signs (Taurus to Aquarius), leaving out the last one (Pisces): this will be your else condition. For example:

elif birthday falls between April 20 to May 20:
    Your sign is Taurus

And so on.

• 1 else sign:

else:
    Your sign is Pisces

Directions

1. Have 12 volunteers line up side by side.

2. Give each volunteer a sign, making sure the leftmost student has the if sign, and the rightmost student has the else sign. It’s best to keep the elif signs in the correct order.

3. Have each student start at the if sign, to check if his birthday falls within the dates on the sign.

4. If it does, have that student stand behind the student holding the sign.

5. Otherwise, have the student step (right) to the next sign, to check if his birthday matches that one.

6. Let him keep going until he finds a sign that matches his birthday.

Wrap up questions

• Ask the students how many steps they had to take to find their zodiac sign. Emphasize that for some cases, fewer elif conditions are checked than for others.

• For the else sign, why was the zodiac sign dates for Pisces unnecessary? (It was the only option left)

• Ask the students to rewrite the else sign so it becomes another elif sign. Point out that the else is optional.

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