Tally charts are one of the earliest methods of recording data that children will come across. In Year 2 children should be confident with counting in fives and they can use this skill when representing totals with tallies. A tally can be thought of as a ‘gate’ with four vertical lines and the fifth line across makes it look like a farm gate. This is easier to see than five vertical lines and stops children having to recount the number of lines they have drawn.

When they are confident with working out totals represented by tallies they can move on to drawing tallies themselves to record totals.

Our latest pages use images of food, vehicles and zoo animals as starting points for making tally charts. Use the ones that most interest your children.