From counting to data
Graphs start with counting, then turn the counts into something you can compare at a glance. These sheets do both on one page, then ask questions that need the graph to answer.
Talk about the graph
Ask which bar is tallest and how they can tell without counting, and what a new picture would do to the graph.
Provincial curriculum links
- BC K–1Concrete and picture graphs as a visual tool, built on one-to-one correspondence.
- BC Grade 2Collecting data, making a concrete graph, then showing it with grids, stamps or drawings.
- ON Grade 1–2Answering a question of interest by sorting data into categories and showing it in a graph or table.
- BC Grade 3–4Choosing bar graphs, pictographs, charts or tables, and recording results with tallies.
Both provinces start data with a real question. Before the sheet, run a quick class survey (favourite season, how we got to school today) and build a floor graph with sticky notes; the sheet then repeats the same steps with pictures.
One square per picture is the one-to-one correspondence BC stresses from Kindergarten to Grade 2. Tally charts suit Grade 2 and up, and BC uses tallies formally in Grade 4 to record the results of probability experiments.
Summarized in our own words from the BC Mathematics curriculum (K–4) and Ontario’s overview of The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Mathematics (2020).
