Mathematics · Year 2 · Statistics: Telling Stories with Data · Summer Term

Making and Using Tally Charts

Discover how to use tally marks to quickly count and record information, making a special 'gate' for every group of five.

TL;DR:Let's become data detectives! Today we're learning a super-fast way to count things and keep our information organised using a special tool called a tally chart.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• National Curriculum for England: Year 2 - Statistics

About This Topic

In the Key Stage 1 mathematics curriculum, making and using tally charts is a fundamental component of the statistics strand. This topic introduces Year 2 pupils to one of the simplest and most effective methods for collecting and organising categorical data. It builds upon their earlier experiences in Year 1 with sorting and counting objects, providing a more structured format for recording information. The focus is twofold: firstly, on the practical skill of creating a tally chart by accurately recording data points using the 'five-bar gate' system, which aids in counting efficiency. Secondly, it emphasises the crucial skill of data interpretation, where pupils learn to read the chart to answer simple questions, compare quantities, and identify totals.

This topic serves as a vital stepping stone towards understanding more complex data representations they will encounter later, such as pictograms, block diagrams, and simple tables. By engaging with tally charts, pupils develop their abilities to ask and answer questions about data, a key aspect of statistical literacy. The process encourages systematic working and attention to detail. It provides a tangible link between a real-world counting activity, such as a class survey on favourite pets, and its abstract representation in a chart, laying the groundwork for future data handling and analysis.

Key Questions

1. Explain why we use a diagonal line for the fifth tally mark.
2. Compare counting a large number of objects one-by-one with counting them using a tally chart.
3. Justify your answer to 'Which is the most popular choice?' using the data in your tally chart.

Learning Objectives

• Collect data to answer a question and record it in a tally chart.
• Use the 'five-bar gate' method to accurately represent groups of five.
• Interpret a tally chart to find the total for each category.
• Compare categories in a tally chart using language such as 'more than', 'less than', 'most' and 'least'.
• Answer simple questions by referring to the data in a tally chart.

Key Vocabulary

Tally Chart	A table used to record counts for different categories, using tally marks.
Data	A collection of information, usually facts or numbers, gathered from observations.
Table	Information organised in rows and columns.
Category	A group or type of item being counted, for example, 'dogs', 'cats', 'fish'.
Frequency	The number of times an item or value appears in a set of data.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

Pupils continue to draw individual strokes beyond four, for example, '||||||' for six, instead of using the diagonal line to make a group of five.

What to Teach Instead

The fifth tally mark is a diagonal line that crosses the first four. This method, called a 'five-bar gate', groups the tallies into fives, making them much quicker and easier to count.

Common Misconception

When totalling the marks, pupils count each stroke individually instead of skip-counting in fives.

What to Teach Instead

Show pupils how much faster it is to count the groups of five first (5, 10, 15...) and then add on the remaining single strokes. Practise this as a mental maths starter.

Common Misconception

Pupils confuse the terms 'row' (horizontal) and 'column' (vertical) when asked to find information in the table.

What to Teach Instead

Use physical actions to reinforce the vocabulary. Ask pupils to move their arm from side to side for a row and up and down for a column.

Active Learning Ideas

Practical Life Work

Class Favourite Survey

As a whole class, decide on a survey topic like 'favourite fruit' or 'favourite school subject'. Pupils then survey their classmates, recording the answers using tally marks on a pre-prepared sheet, before totalling the results.

25 min·Whole Class

Practical Life Work

Playground Object Hunt

In pairs, pupils go into the playground with a clipboard and a list of things to find, such as 'benches', 'bins', 'trees', and 'balls'. They use tally marks to count how many of each item they can see.

30 min·Pairs

Practical Life Work

Traffic Tally

From a safe vantage point overlooking a road, pupils tally the different types of vehicles that pass by in a ten-minute period (e.g., cars, buses, lorries, bicycles). Afterwards, they discuss which vehicle type was most frequent.

20 min·Small Groups

Real-World Connections

• Keeping score during a sports game or a board game.
• Voting for a class decision, like which film to watch or which book to read.
• Shopkeepers doing a stocktake to count how many of each item they have.
• Carrying out a survey to find out people's favourite foods or hobbies.
• Scientists recording the number of different animals or plants they see in a habitat.

Assessment Ideas

Quick Check

Observe pupils during a practical data collection activity. Check their ability to make accurate tally marks for each item and correctly form the 'five-bar gate'.

Quick Check

Provide pupils with a completed tally chart and a short set of written questions. The questions should require them to find totals, identify the most and least popular categories, and make simple comparisons.

Quick Check

Give pupils a simple 'traffic light' sheet where they can colour in a circle (red, amber, or green) next to 'I can' statements like 'I can make a tally for a group of five' and 'I can find the total from a tally chart'.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do we use tally marks instead of just writing the numbers?

Tally marks are very useful when you are counting things as they happen, one by one. It's much quicker to make a mark than to keep rubbing out a number and writing the next one.

What is the line that goes across the other four lines for?

That special line is the fifth tally. It groups the marks into a set of five, which makes it much easier to count up your total at the end, especially when you have large numbers.

What does 'frequency' mean?

Frequency is just a word that means 'how many times' something was counted. So, the frequency of 'red cars' is the total number of red cars you tallied.