Using a Tally Chart

Jackson is on a field trip with his class. They are visiting a local park to have a nature hunt!

Will you help him count the things he sees?

We will use a tally chart to keep track of the things Jackson sees.

Here is the chart for the class nature hunt. Jackson needs to find acorns, squirrels, birds, leaves, clouds, and raindrops. He will draw tally marks to show each item he sees on the chart. Are you ready to help Jackson count?

Jackson wants to look for acorns first. Jackson will draw the tally marks as we count.

1, 2, 3, 4. Jackson drew four tally marks to show the acorns we saw.

Now Jackson wants to count the squirrels.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. We saw six squirrels!

Jackson drew one group of five and one more tally mark. That makes six!

Jackson sees different kinds of birds and wants to count them all!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

There are 12 birds!

Jackson drew two groups of five and two more tally marks. That makes twelve!

Leaves are next. There are a lot of leaves in the park! Let’s count the ones we see under the bench.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. There are 9 leaves under this bench!

Jackson drew one group of five and four more tally marks. That makes nine!

Jackson wants to count the clouds he sees in the sky above the park.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. There are 7 clouds in the sky above the park!

Jackson drew one group of five and two more tally marks. That makes seven!

It’s starting to rain! Jackson wants to count the raindrops.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.

There are 16 raindrops falling from the clouds above this part of the park!

Jackson drew three groups of five and one more tally mark. That makes sixteen! It’s really raining; time to get on the bus and go back to school!

Let’s look at Jackson’s tally chart one more time. Which item did he see the most?

That’s right! Jackson saw sixteen raindrops in the sky. Sixteen was the largest number on the chart.

Which item did Jackson see the least?

You’ve got it! Jackson saw four acorns on the ground. Four is the smallest number on the chart.

How many more leaves than clouds did Jackson see?

Two! Jackson saw nine leaves. He saw seven clouds. Nine is two more than 7!

Jackson and his class loved going on a nature hunt today! You did a great job helping Jackson use the tally chart!