How do tally charts help us?

The Basic Idea

A survey is carried out of either something you chose as a class or individuals/pairs/groups decide and the results are recorded in a tally chart using the objects themselves to reinforce the concept.

How to take it even further or make it more challenging

In class, decide what you are going to be looking for. It could be leaves or the children could collect rubbish with gloves for example.

The area that they use to carry out the survey is important. It may be that you decide to give the children a 1m square to find as much as they can in that area, or that they can explore and collect from a larger area.

Once decided, the children may need support with drawing their large tally charts. They will need a column for the ‘name’, a column for the objects to be placed in and counted, a column to tally and then also a column for the frequency if required.

The children collect the objects they are looking for- or add ones to the list on their chart.

Once the tally charts have been created, the children can check other charts so see if they have been tallied correctly.

Photos can be taken and reviewed back in class.

MS