🔢 MathLevel 1Lesson 26
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Making Simple Graphs

Lesson preview: the Mini Lesson and Vocabulary are open to everyone. Guided practice, exercises, the parent checklist and the printable PDF worksheet come with full access (free 7-day trial or membership).

Learning Objectives

  • 1Record data using tally marks
  • 2Read a completed tally chart to find totals
  • 3Read a simple bar graph to compare amounts
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Mini Lesson

When we collect information about the world — like how many children prefer cats, dogs, or fish — we call that data. Graphs help us show data clearly so everyone can read it at a glance!

Tally marks

  • A tally mark is a quick stroke we draw each time we count one thing.
  • Draw four strokes standing up: | | | |
  • The fifth tally crosses through the four — this makes a group of 5, which is easy to count.
  • Count tally groups of 5 first, then add the extras.

Tally chart

  • A tally chart has a column of categories and a column of tally marks.
  • Each mark represents one thing counted.
  • Add up the tally marks to find the total for each category.

Bar graph

  • A bar graph uses a bar (a filled rectangle) for each category.
  • The longer the bar, the greater the amount.
  • Read the number at the end of each bar to find the total.
  • Compare bars to find which category has the most or the fewest.
Tally marks and a sample tally chart for favorite petsTop section shows how to draw tally marks: four vertical strokes then a diagonal fifth stroke making a group of five. Below is a tally chart with three rows: Cats with seven tallies, Dogs with five tallies, Fish with three tallies.Tally Marks= 5= 25 + 2 = 7 totalFavorite Pets Tally ChartPetTalliesTotal🐱 Cats7🐶 Dogs5🐟 Fish3Each tally mark = 1 vote.
How tally marks work (groups of 5) and a completed tally chart showing favorite pets data.
Bar graph showing favorite pets: cats 7, dogs 5, fish 3A horizontal bar graph with three bars. Cats bar reaches 7, dogs bar reaches 5, fish bar reaches 3. A number scale runs from 0 to 8 across the top.Bar Graph — Favorite Pets012345678🐱7🐶5🐟3Longer bar = more votes.
A bar graph of the same pet data — the longer the bar, the more children chose that pet.
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Ask yourself: "Can I read the total for each row of the tally chart? Which bar on my graph is the longest?"

Vocabulary
Data
Information we collect by counting or askinge.g. Our favorite colors are data.
Tally mark
A quick stroke we draw each time we count one thinge.g. I made a tally mark for every dog.
Tally chart
A chart that uses tally marks to show how many of each thinge.g. Our tally chart shows 5 cats and 3 dogs.
Bar graph
A graph with bars where longer means moree.g. The bar graph shows fish has the longest bar.
Total
How many altogethere.g. The total of all tallies is 12.
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