Skills Covered

How to Use This Pack

Five pages on making bar graphs, each with a worked example. Page 1 turns a tally chart of a class vote into a bar graph that goes up: write each tally as a number, then color a bar up to it. On page 2 students count four kinds of fruit in a picture, write how many and draw the bars. Page 3 gives a table of books read, and students draw a bar graph that goes across and write its title and both axis labels. Page 4 counts by 2s: bars for odd numbers stop halfway between two lines. Page 5 starts with a list of survey answers: tally them, draw the graph, then answer put together, take apart and compare questions.

In the Classroom

Take a class vote with four choices and make the bar graph together on chart paper, one square for each vote. Point to the title and the two labels and ask what each one tells a reader. Then ask questions that join, take apart and compare: how many voted for fall or summer, how many did not vote for winter, how many more voted for summer than spring?

At Home

Sort a handful of things, like crayons by color or socks by kind, and draw a bar graph together on grid paper. Give it a title and labels, then take turns asking how many more and how many in all.

Tips for Success

• Give every bar graph a title and a label on each side
• Count the tally marks by 5s, then 1s
• Color a bar up to the line for its number
• On a graph that counts by 2s, an odd number stops halfway between two lines
• In all: add. How many more or fewer: subtract