Lesson Notes By Weeks and Term v5 - Grade 3

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 and organise data using tally marks.
• Draw pictographs and bar graphs.
• Answer questions about data in tables and graphs.
• Solve simple, real-life problems using data.

Lesson summary

Introduction: Welcome, Grade 3 learners! This week, we become 'Data Detectives'. Data is just a fancy word for information. We are surrounded by information every day.

Think about your class: How many learners love vetkoek? How many prefer walking to school over taking a taxi? Who has a birthday in May? Data handling is the skill of collecting this information, organising it neatly, and then drawing pictures or graphs to understand it better. This is a very important skill in South Africa! It helps us make smart choices, like when a spaza shop owner uses data to decide which cool drinks to stock the most of, or when we vote for a class captain and need to count the votes fairly.

Lesson notes

What is Data? Data is information we collect. It can be about anything!

For example: The number of red, blue, and green cars that pass your school gate. The favourite fruits of all the learners in your class. The different types of houses people live in on your street.

Step 1: Collecting Data with Tally Marks When we ask a question and get answers, we need a quick way to record them. We use tally marks. A tally mark is just a straight line ( | ).

How it works: For each answer, you draw one line: | When you get to the fifth answer, you draw a line across the first four to make a bundle: `||||` becomes `||||` This makes it very easy to count in fives!

Example: Favourite South African Animals A Grade 3 class was asked about their favourite animal from the 'Big Five'.

Here are their answers: Lion, Elephant, Lion, Buffalo, Rhino, Lion, Elephant, Lion, Elephant, Leopard, Rhino, Lion, Elephant, Buffalo Let's tally this data: Lion: We see 'Lion' 5 times.

So the tally is: `||||` Elephant: We see 'Elephant' 4 times.

So the tally is: `||||` Buffalo: We see 'Buffalo' 2 times.

So the tally is: `||` Rhino: We see 'Rhino' 2 times.

So the tally is: `||` Leopard: We see 'Leopard' 1 time.

So the tally is: `|` Step 2: Organising Data in a Tally Table Now we put our tally marks into a neat table. This helps us see the results clearly. | Favourite Animal | Tally Marks | Total Number | | :--------------- | :---------- | :----------- | | Lion | `||||` | 5 | | Elephant | `||||` | 4 | | Buffalo | `||` | 2 | | Rhino | `||` | 2 | | Leopard | `|` | 1 | Step 3: Representing Data in Graphs Graphs are pictures of our data. They make it easy to compare information at a glance. A. Pictographs A pictograph uses pictures or symbols to show data. It MUST have a key to explain what each picture means.