Handling Data - Frequency Tables

Data is a collection of information, it can be words, numbers, values or measurements and is recorded in many different ways. Children need to be able to understand and interpret this data and use tables, lists, graphs, charts and diagrams to record and analyse the information.

Using Tables is a simple way of recording information, children begin by using the tally method. Lets look at a class survey of their favourite pets. Below is a table listing all the types of pet that the children have. A tally mark is a vertical line that represents one unit, the fifth line is drawn diagonally across the first four to represent 5. This makes it very easy to count.

Ask your child questions relating to the information, such as 'What is the most popular pet?', 'How many goldfish are there?', 'How may pets do the class have?' etc.

This type of table is often referred to as a 'Frequency Table' - Frequency means how often something occurs.

This table records the amount of goals scored by children during 5 football games.

Who scored the most goals? - How many goals were scored by girls? In which game were the most goals scored?