Let’s Learn About Shape Tally Charts
Goal:
Goal:
How do you make a shape tally chart?
Just like we can make a tally chart for animals at the farm, we can make a tally chart to organize shapes by their traits. Traits are what the shapes have in common. You learned that people can share traits, like hair and eye color. Shapes can share traits, too! Let’s learn how!
Shapes can share the same shape trait. Shapes can be different sizes but still be the same shape. Look at the squares below.
These three shapes share the same trait because they are all squares. The size is different, but the type of shape is the same.
Shapes can share the same number of sides. Count the sides of each shape below to see which shapes share the same number of sides!
Which shapes have the same number of sides?
The rectangle and the rhombus both have 4 sides, so they share the trait of the same number of sides.
Shapes can share the same size, as well. We can sort shapes by their sizes. Shapes can be small, medium, or large. Look at the shapes below and find the ones that are small.
Which shapes pictured above are small?
Oops! The circle is small, but the trapezoid is large.
Correct! The circle and triangle share the same trait. They are both small.
Incorrect. The triangle is small, but the square is medium sized.
Summary
Questions answered correctly:
Questions answered incorrectly:
Shapes can be the same color. When this happens, the shared trait is color. Look at the shapes below to see if you can find the ones that share the same color.
Click the shapes below that share the same color.
Incorrect. The triangle is blue. There are no other blue shapes.
Correct! The square is orange and shares the same trait with other shapes.
Yes! The pentagon is orange, and other shapes are orange.
That’s right! The star is orange, so it shares the same trait as other shapes.
We can use a tally chart to show the traits a group of shapes share. Take a look at the shapes below. We can sort them by the number of sides. Count the sides!
Some shapes have 3 sides, and some shapes have 4 sides. Our tally chart will help us sort the shapes by sides. First, we make a chart that shows the number of sides the shapes have.
| 3 Sides | |
| 4 Sides |
Next, we can use tally marks to show the number of shapes with three sides and the number of shapes with four sides. How many tally marks belong next to 3 sides?
| 3 Sides |  |
| 4 Sides |
Let’s finish the chart! How many tally marks belong next to four sides?
| 3 Sides | |
| 4 Sides |  |
Our tally chart shows the shared traits of the shapes!
Let’s create a tally chart to show the sizes of the shapes below.
These circles are small, medium, and large. Our tally chart will have those three categories so that we can sort the shapes by their shared trait.
| Small | |
| Medium | |
| Large |
Next, we count the small circles and make tallies to represent the number. How many tallies will we have in the small category?
| Small | |
| Medium | |
| Large |
Now, we count the medium circles. How many tallies will we need?
| Small | |
| Medium | |
| Large |
Our last step is to count the large circles. Then our chart will be complete! How many large circles are there?
| Small | |
| Medium | |
| Large | |
Now we can see how many circles share the same size trait. Two circles are small, three circles are medium, and three circles are large!
Let’s make one more tally chart. This time, the shared trait will be the type of shape. Count how many types of shapes there are below.
Did you count the different types? There are trapezoids, triangles, rectangles, a circle, and squares. We have 5 different types of shapes in this group. Our tally chart needs to have 5 rows for the different shapes. Click below to see it!
| Trapezoids | |
| Triangles | |
| Rectangles | |
| Circles | |
| Squares |
Can you put the tally marks in the chart? Draw the tally chart above on your piece of paper. How many trapezoids are there? How many triangles do you count? Can you count the rectangles? There aren’t many circles! How many squares are there? Once you’ve answered the questions, click below to see if you created the same chart!
| Trapezoids |  |
| Triangles | |
| Rectangles | |
| Circles |  |
| Squares | |
You did a great job learning how to use shape traits to make tally charts!