Level 2 · Ages 8–11
Imagine you are counting the animals on a farm: 4 cats, 7 dogs, 3 fish. If you write everything in sentences, it takes forever to read again. A table stores these numbers in neat, aligned boxes: one column for the animals, one column for the numbers. In a single glance, you can find everything.
To read a table, first find the right row (for example the dogs row), then read the number written next to it. It is like finding a dish on a restaurant menu: you slide your finger along the row until you reach the number.
A bar chart tells the same story, but as a drawing: each bar stands for a category, and the taller the bar, the bigger the number. To read a bar's value, look at how high it climbs on the scale, the row of numbers written on the side.
Watch out for the classic trap: each step of the scale is not always worth 1! Sometimes one step is worth 2, 5 or 10. Always check the scale before reading a bar.
In this lesson you will learn to find a value, compare bars and add up data. These are superpowers you will use everywhere: game scores, weather, sports results. Your turn!
Read it again any time, including while you work through the exercises.
Imagine you are counting the animals on a farm: 4 cats, 7 dogs, 3 fish. If you write everything in sentences, it takes forever to read again. A table stores these numbers in neat, aligned boxes: one column for the animals, one column for the numbers. In a single glance, you can find everything.
To read a table, first find the right row (for example the dogs row), then read the number written next to it. It is like finding a dish on a restaurant menu: you slide your finger along the row until you reach the number.
A bar chart tells the same story, but as a drawing: each bar stands for a category, and the taller the bar, the bigger the number. To read a bar's value, look at how high it climbs on the scale, the row of numbers written on the side.
Watch out for the classic trap: each step of the scale is not always worth 1! Sometimes one step is worth 2, 5 or 10. Always check the scale before reading a bar.
In this lesson you will learn to find a value, compare bars and add up data. These are superpowers you will use everywhere: game scores, weather, sports results. Your turn!
Here is the table of fruit sold at the market: apples 12, pears 8, cherries 15. How many pears were sold? And how many pieces of fruit in total?
poires -> 8
I find the pears row in the table, then I read the number next to it: 8.
12 + 8 + 15 = 35
For the total, I add up all the values in the table: 12 plus 8 is 20, and 20 plus 15 is 35.
Result: 8 pears were sold, and 35 pieces of fruit in total.