Lesson Notes By Weeks and Term v5 - Grade 3

Lesson Video

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Performance objectives

• Collect and organise data using tally marks and tables.
• Show data using pictographs and bar graphs.
• Read and understand data from graphs and tables.
• Solve simple problems using data.
• Explain what data handling is and why it's useful.

Lesson summary

Data handling is a crucial skill that helps us understand and make sense of the world around us. In South Africa, we see data everywhere – from counting the number of learners in our classroom, to tracking the weather patterns for farming, or even knowing which soccer team is the most popular. Being able to collect, organise, and interpret data empowers us to make informed decisions and solve problems effectively. This week's focus is on solidifying our data handling skills and preparing for assessments on this topic. We will practice representing data in different ways and answering questions based on the information presented.

Lesson notes

What is Data? Data is information, facts, or figures that we collect. It can be about anything! For example, the colours of cars in a parking lot, the number of siblings each learner in your class has, or the favourite fruits of people in your street.

Tally Marks: Tally marks are a quick and easy way to count things. Each tally mark represents one item. We usually group them in fives for easy counting. Four vertical lines and a diagonal line across them makes a group of five: |||| Frequency Table: A frequency table shows how many times each item appears in our data.

It has two columns: one for the items and one for the frequency (how many times each item appears).

Pictographs: A pictograph uses pictures or symbols to represent data. Each picture or symbol represents a certain number of items. It’s very important to understand what each picture represents (the key!).

Bar Graphs: A bar graph uses bars of different lengths to represent data. The length of each bar shows how many items there are. Bar graphs have a title, labels for the axes (horizontal and vertical lines), and a scale (how many items each unit on the axis represents). Why are these representations important? Frequency tables, pictographs, and bar graphs help us to see patterns and understand data more easily than just looking at a list of numbers. They allow us to compare different groups and answer questions quickly.

Worked example

Example 1: Favourite Fruits

Let’s say we asked 20 Grade 3 learners what their favourite fruit is.

Here are the results:

Apple: 6

Banana: 8

Orange: 4

Pear: 2

Frequency Table:

| Fruit | Frequency |

| ------- | --------- |

| Apple | 6 |

| Banana | 8 |

| Orange | 4 |

| Pear | 2 |