Tally Marks and Graphing Games
Math can be so much fun! From tally marks to graphing games, there are all sorts of activities that help kids learn the basics while enjoying themselves. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at some of my favourites. My Kindergarten Data Management unit with ready-to-teach lessons on organizing data and tallying is at the end of this post.
Get ready for some math fun!
Tally Marks
If you’re a teacher, you’ve probably used tallying before. Tally marks are a simple way to represent numbers using lines. They’re often used in classrooms to help students count and learn mathematical concepts. Learning about the number 5 and being able to count by 5s is a foundational math skill. It’s why we use 5 frames in Kindergarten to build subitizing and fact fluency. Tally marks are grouped in 5s.
Games About 5
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has a variety of games in one for using a 5 frame.
https://www.nctm.org/Classroom-Resources/Illuminations/Interactives/Five-Frame/
Videos about Tally Marks
Here are some helpful videos that can teach children how to tally correctly and efficiently.
First, a lesson on how to draw tally marks.
Here’s a more advanced lesson that uses tally marks to display data.
One more video from Scratch Garden (always a favourite!)
And finally, a story about a girl named Tally O’Malley who uses tallying on a road trip with her family. Check the price of the book on Amazon.ca. (affiliate link)
Online Graphing and Tally Marks Games
Play this Tally Chart Game to practice reading data from a tally chart.
Play PBS Kids – Bugs in the System.
Pictogram Games
Here are some games for practicing organizing data in pictographs.
In this fishing game, you’ll make a pictograph with different colours of fish as you catch them.
Fruit Fall is another great game for learning to make a pictograph.
Finally, this Pictograph Game asks students to read information from a pictograph and answer questions.
Kindergarten Data Management Unit
Teaching data management to Kindergarten students requires some basic information about how and why we organize data.
In my class, the majority of my students are multilingual learners and learning terms like data can be challenging. I create highly visual math units that break concepts down to help students learn new terminology and practice their math skills. I have a bundle of math units and you can click the pictures below to see my Data Management Unit on TPT.
I hope this blog post has provided you with some tips for organizing your data and tallying unit, as well as provide a few activities you can use in the classroom.
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