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Skills Covered

  • Sort things into kinds and count each kind
  • Decide how to find out: count or ask
  • Gather data by voting, watching and asking friends
  • Make one tally mark for each vote or day
  • Write the number for each tally and check the total
  • Tell which kind has the most and the fewest

How to Use This Pack

Five pages about gathering data, the first step before any graph. Page 1 is a toy bin of teddy bears, ducks, dinosaurs and beach balls: students cross off each toy, draw a dot for it in its row of the table and write how many, with the teddy bear row worked as an example, then circle the toy with the most and the one with the fewest. Page 2 asks how we could find out eight things: some, like how many windows are in our room, we can count; others, like which fruit our friends like best, we have to ask. Students circle Count or Ask. Page 3 is a class vote for a favorite fruit: each child shows a fruit in a speech bubble, and students check off each child, make a tally mark for each vote, write the numbers and check that the votes add up to the number of children. Page 4 records the weather on fifteen school days in a calendar with tally marks, then asks which weather happened on the most and the fewest days. On page 5 students run a survey of their own: ask 10 friends which pet they like best, tally the answers, circle the favorite and draw something in the classroom that could be counted.

In the Classroom

Before page 1, dump a bin of real toys or blocks on the rug and sort them together, one pile for each kind. Read the questions on page 2 aloud and talk about why some can be answered by looking and others only by asking. For page 3, take a real class vote with hands up and tally it on the board as students watch. Page 5 works well as a walk-around activity: give students ten minutes to ask their classmates.

At Home

Sort the laundry, the toy box or a bag of snacks into kinds and count each pile. Keep a weather chart on the fridge for a week, one tally mark each morning. Help your child ask family members a question, such as which fruit they like best, and keep track with tally marks.

Tips for Success

  • Cross off or check off each thing as you count it, so nothing is counted twice
  • Make one mark for each thing, in the row with its picture
  • Four tally marks, then a line across them makes a bundle of five
  • Count the bundles by fives, then count on the marks that are left
  • Add up the numbers and check that the total matches how many there were

Common Core Standards Alignment

This pack supports the following Common Core State Standards for Mathematics:

  • K.MD.B.3 Sort objects into named groups, count each group (up to 10), and order the groups by how many they hold.
  • 1.MD.C.4 Sort and show data in up to three groups, then answer questions about the total, each group's count, and how groups differ.

© Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.

Collecting Data: Sort, Count and Vote

K – 1st Grade

A 5-page collecting data pack for kindergarten and 1st grade. Sort a toy bin into kinds and write how many of each, decide whether a question is answered by counting or by asking friends, tally a class vote for a favorite fruit and check the total, tally three weeks of school-day weather, and run a survey of your own by asking 10 friends which pet they like best. Every page comes in color and in black and white. Answer keys included.

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What’s Included

  • 5 worksheets in color and in black and white, with answer keys (15 pages)
  • A toy bin to sort and count, with a worked example row
  • Count or ask: eight questions about how to find out
  • A class vote and a weather calendar to tally, and a survey of your own to run
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