Lesson Notes By Weeks and Term v5 - Grade 4

Lesson Video

This page supports the lesson note with a companion video and a short classroom-ready summary.

For class groups and homework, share this lesson page so learners also get the summary, objectives, and full lesson context.

Performance objectives

• Collect data using simple surveys.
• Organize data using tally marks and frequency tables.
• Represent data using pictographs.
• Represent data using bar graphs.
• Answer questions about your data.

Lesson summary

Data handling is all about collecting information, organizing it, and then showing it in a way that makes sense. This week, we're going to learn how to collect our own data and display it using pictographs and bar graphs. Understanding data is incredibly useful in our daily lives. Imagine your family is planning a trip to a game reserve. You could collect data on different animals found in the reserve and use that data to decide which reserve to visit, or which animals to focus on spotting. Or, imagine the school is trying to decide which sports to offer. Collecting data about which sports learners enjoy most can help the school make the best decision.

Lesson notes

2.1 What is Data? Data is just another word for information. It can be about anything! It could be the number of learners in your class, the colours of cars that pass by your house, or the types of fruit sold at the local market. Data helps us understand patterns and trends in the world around us. 2.2 Collecting Data The first step in data handling is collecting the information.

We can do this in a few ways: Surveys: Asking people questions and writing down their answers. For example, you could survey your classmates about their favourite flavour of ice cream.

Observations: Watching and recording what you see. For example, you could observe the types of birds that visit your garden and record how many of each type you see. 2.3 Organizing Data: Tally Marks and Frequency Tables Once we have the data, we need to organize it so it's easier to understand. Two common ways to do this are tally marks and frequency tables.

Tally Marks: These are vertical lines used to count. We usually group them in sets of five to make counting easier. One tally mark represents one item. Four tally marks and then a diagonal line across the four (like a gate) makes a group of five. ( |||| represents 4 and |||| with a slash is 5)

Frequency Table: A table that shows how many times each item appears in our data. The "frequency" is just another word for "how many times." Example 1: Collecting and Organizing Data (Ice Cream Flavours) Let's say you survey 10 of your classmates about their favourite ice cream flavour.

Here are their answers: Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry, Chocolate, Vanilla, Chocolate, Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla, Chocolate. Now, let's organize this data using tally marks and a frequency table: | Ice Cream Flavour | Tally Marks | Frequency | | ------------------ | ----------- | --------- | | Chocolate | |||| | 5 | | Vanilla | ||| | 3 | | Strawberry | || | 2 | Explanation: For Chocolate, we had five classmates choose it, so we have five tally marks, grouped as |||| . The frequency is

5. For Vanilla, we had three classmates choose it, so we have three tally marks |||. The frequency is

3. For Strawberry, we had two classmates choose it, so we have two tally marks ||. The frequency is 2. 2.4 Representing Data: Pictographs A pictograph uses pictures or symbols to represent data. Each picture represents a certain number of items. For this week, we will only be using pictographs where ONE picture stands for ONE item.

Example 2: Creating a Pictograph (Ice Cream Flavours) Using the ice cream flavour data from above, we can create a pictograph. Let's use an ice cream cone 🍦 to represent one vote. | Ice Cream Flavour | Pictograph | | ------------------ | ----------------- | | Chocolate | 🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦 | | Vanilla | 🍦🍦🍦 | | Strawberry | 🍦🍦 | Explanation: Since 5 classmates chose chocolate, we draw 5 ice cream cones. Since 3 classmates chose vanilla, we draw 3 ice cream cones. Since 2 classmates chose strawberry, we draw 2 ice cream cones. Always include a title "Favourite Ice Cream Flavours" and a key/legend (1 ice cream cone = 1 vote). 2.5 Representing Data: Bar Graphs A bar graph uses bars of different lengths to represent data. The length of each bar shows the frequency of that item. For this week, we will be working with bar graphs that have ONE-TO-ONE correspondence, meaning each block on the graph paper represents ONE item.

Example 3: Creating a Bar Graph (Ice Cream Flavours) Using the ice cream flavour data from above, let's create a bar graph. The x-axis (horizontal line) will represent the ice cream flavours, and the y-axis (vertical line) will represent the number of votes. Each block on the y-axis will represent one vote. Draw a bar for Chocolate that goes up to

5. Draw a bar for Vanilla that goes up to

3. Draw a bar for Strawberry that goes up to

2. Make sure to label your axes (Ice Cream Flavours and Number of Votes) and give your graph a title "Favourite Ice Cream Flavours". 2.6 Interpreting Data Once we have a pictograph or bar graph, we can use it to answer questions about the data.

Example 4: Interpreting the Ice Cream Data Which ice cream flavour is the most popular? Chocolate Which ice cream flavour is the least popular? Strawberry How many more classmates like Chocolate than Vanilla? 2 (5 - 3 = 2) How many classmates were surveyed? 10 (5 + 3 + 2 = 10) Guided Practice (With Solutions)

Question 1: You surveyed 8 friends about their favourite sport.

Here are the results: Soccer, Netball, Soccer, Rugby, Soccer, Netball, Soccer, Cricket. Create a frequency table.

Solution: | Sport | Tally Marks | Frequency | | -------- | ----------- | --------- | | Soccer | |||| | 4 | | Netball | || | 2 | | Rugby | | | 1 | | Cricket | | | 1 | Explanation: We counted how many times each sport was mentioned and recorded the totals in the frequency table.

Question 2: Using the data from Question 1, create a pictograph. Let one ball represent one vote.