This article shares two activities geared toward students in middle school that engage students in analyzing measures of center, specifically the arithmetic mean, and using transnumerative thinking with the ultimate goal of improving students' statistical literacy. Both activities support the Common Core standard, 6.SP.B.5 "Summarize and describe distributions" (NGA Center and CCSSO 2010, p. 45) as well as students' progression in analyzing measures of center. In the first activity, Comparing Cuisenaire® Rod Trains, students reorganize Cuisenaire Rods to uncover their numerical thinking and understanding of the arithmetic mean. By working with a familiar manipulative and connecting to the fifth-grade standard (5.MD.A.1 "Convert like measurement units within a given measurement system," [NGA Center and CCSSO 2010, p. 37]), this activity allows students an access point into visualizing an arithmetic mean length of the Cuisenaire Rods, along with the height shown as a horizontal line on a bar graph. The second activity, Levi's LEGO® Store, provides students with a dataset that is missing daily store sale values and asks them to analyze the change in the arithmetic mean. Students extend the use of the arithmetic mean as a horizontal line in two bar graphs as they compare the average number of sales at the store. Both activities encourage transnumerative thinking while meaningfully connecting their conceptual understanding of an arithmetic mean with procedural fluency (NCTM 2014).