Mathematics · 2nd Class

Active learning ideas

Asking Questions and Collecting Data

Turn your pupils into data detectives with this engaging introduction to surveys. They'll discover how asking a simple question can reveal fascinating facts about their own class.

• NCCA Curriculum Specifications
• PSMC: Data - Representing and interpreting data - Collect and record data using tallies

• 10–30 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• Morning Circle
• 30 min · Pairs

Our Class Favourites Survey

Pupils work in pairs to devise a simple question with 3-4 possible answers, such as 'What is your favourite season?'. They then survey their classmates, recording the answers on a clipboard using tally marks.

Identify a question that can be answered by surveying the class.

Facilitation Tip

Provide pupils with a simple template to help structure their question and tally chart.

What to look for

Observe pupils during the survey activity. Note their ability to ask their question clearly, record a tally for each response, and correctly form groups of five.

• Remember
• Understand
• Self-Awareness
• Social Awareness
• Relationship Skills

Activity 02

• Morning Circle
• 10 min · Whole Class

Tally Mark Race

A quick, whole-class activity to build fluency. Call out random numbers between 1 and 20, and pupils write the correct number of tally marks on their individual whiteboards as quickly as they can.

Explain how to use tally marks to count responses.

Facilitation Tip

After each number, have a pupil demonstrate the correct tally formation on the board.

What to look for

Give pupils a short list of data, for example, 'Favourite colours: Blue, Blue, Red, Green, Red, Blue'. Ask them to represent this data correctly in a tally chart.

• Remember
• Understand
• Self-Awareness
• Social Awareness
• Relationship Skills

Activity 03

• Morning Circle
• 15 min · Whole Class

Lunchbox Investigation

As a class, decide on a question about the contents of lunchboxes, for example, 'What fruit do we have today?'. Pupils check their lunchboxes and report back, while a designated scribe records the data using a large tally chart on the board.

Justify why tally marks are a quick way to record data.

Facilitation Tip

Ensure the question is simple and focuses on common items to make data collection straightforward.

What to look for

Pupils use a 'fist to five' (fingers) to show their confidence in using tally marks, or use a simple smiley face checklist for skills like 'I can ask a question' and 'I can count tallies'.

• Remember
• Understand
• Self-Awareness
• Social Awareness
• Relationship Skills

A few notes on teaching this unit

Begin by modelling a whole-class survey on the board, such as 'Which is your favourite school subject: Maths, Gaeilge, or Art?'. Think aloud as you create the tally chart and record the votes, emphasising the 'shut the gate' action for every fifth mark. Then, support pupils in pairs as they design and carry out their own simple surveys on familiar topics.

By the end of this topic, your pupils will be able to create their own survey questions, gather answers from their friends using tally marks, and explain what their findings mean.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• Forgetting to 'shut the gate' with the fifth tally mark, resulting in a long, continuous line of marks.

  Explain that grouping tallies into bundles of five makes them much quicker to count. Practise chanting 'one, two, three, four, number five shuts the door' while drawing the marks.

• Writing the numeral '4' instead of four vertical tally marks (||||).

  Clarify that a tally mark is a simple stroke that stands for 'one'. We use these strokes to count, and only write the final number after we have counted all the tallies.

• Asking questions that are too open-ended, like 'What's your favourite food?', which results in too many different answers to record easily.

  Guide pupils to create questions with a limited number of choices. For example, change 'What's your favourite food?' to 'Which do you prefer: pizza, pasta, or chicken nuggets?'.

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Methods used in this brief

• Morning Circle