Interpreting Tally Charts / Frequency Table

Students can count the tally marks individually if needed, but skip-counting by fives first makes finding the totals of each category quicker. Introducing skip counting by fives with tally charts demonstrates a very practical use for the skill to students. Students should record the totals for each category on the tally chart in a separate column for frequency.

Students are expected to be able to compare and answer questions about the frequency of data points. Many of these answers can be figured out easily by counting carefully, or by doing basic addition or subtraction with the frequency table.

Using the example below, have students interpret the following questions with the data presented!

1. How many more people like basketball than tennis?
2. Which category had the most?
3. Which category had the least?
4. How many people voted in all?

By using language that students don’t necessarily associate with math, students will be able to see the value of gathering and analyzing the information.

Here are some questions that change up the language used, requiring students to analyze the data in a different way. Let these questions serve as inspiration for creating your own, unique storyboard tally charts!

1. Which flavor of ice cream was the most popular?
2. Did people like playing kickball or Band-Aid tag in PE better?
3. When I buy colored paper for the classroom, should I get lots of the [unpopular] yellow?

Student Instructions

Create a storyboard to record data to a survey questions.

1. Decide on a question to ask your classmates. Examples include:
• Favorite Sport
• Favorite Ice Cream Flavor
• Favorite Music
2. Come up with five possible answers and enter them into the storyboard template.
3. Ask classmates the question and record each response with a tally mark.
4. Count up the responses to find the frequency.