Reading and making graphs

What they’re learning

Your child is learning to collect, organize, display, and interpret data. They should be able to read what a graph says and answer questions using evidence from the graph.

Explain it to my child

A graph is a picture of information. The title tells what the data is about, and the labels tell what each bar, point, or symbol means.

Try it together

Ask everyone at home to choose a favourite fruit, snack, or activity. Make tally marks, then turn them into a simple bar graph. Ask which choice is most common, least common, and how many more chose one than another.

Practice

1. A bar for apples is 7 and a bar for pears is 4. How many more chose apples?
2. If 3 people chose red, 5 blue, and 2 green, how many people answered?
3. Which graph feature tells what the graph is about?
4. Why should bars use the same scale?
5. If a pictograph symbol means 2 people, what do 4 symbols represent?

Check understanding

• Can your child answer comparison questions from a graph?
• Can they explain what the scale or legend means?