Tables, Graphs and Models: a skill companion

A small set of reusable sheets that grow one inquiry skill: organising data in a table, showing it as a simple column graph or a visual or physical model, and using the representation to see a relationship and name a pattern. Print the scaffolds once and slot them into the science lessons you are already teaching.

What a skill companion is

Inquiry skills are not a topic of their own. They grow inside the science units a class teaches all year, such as Food Chains and Habitats, The Water Cycle, Forces, Friction and Magnets, and Properties of Materials. So this pack is not a full term of lessons. It is three reusable scaffolds, a map of where they fit, and a short stand-alone lesson for teaching the skill on its own first.

Start here: five minutes

1. Read the pairing map on the next page: it shows data to organise in each Year 4 topic.
2. Print the table-to-graph sheet, one per child, whenever the class has counts or measurements.
3. Print the model sheet when the class builds a model with cubes, strips or drawings.
4. Cut out the graph cards once. They are reused all year, and the blank cards fit any topic.
5. Run the one-page mini-lesson first if you want to teach the skill before folding it into a topic.

No science background needed

This pack is written for the busy generalist teacher. Each scaffold explains itself in plain words, and the answer sheet gives the completed table and graph, a model check, the card key and a quick three-level guide. A model need not be fancy: a tower of cubes for each count, or a row of swatches in order, shows the same pattern as a graph.

Slot the skill into your science lessons

Every science unit produces data or information worth organising. This map gives one example for each Year 4 topic, the representation that fits it, and which scaffold to reach for. You do not run these as extra lessons; you fold them into the science you teach.

The three moves, and the picture that backs each one

When you want a worked example on the board, open the interactive unit and use the picture that matches the move children are working on.

• Organise data in a table, then show it as a column graph: “Put the soaking amounts in a table, then draw the graph”.
• Build a visual model that shows the same pattern: “Build a visual model of the soaking, one material at a time”.
• Use a representation to spot a value that breaks the pattern, and to choose one that shows it: “Find the soaking amount that does not fit” and “Which choices organise the soaking data and show the pattern?”.

How the scaffolds build the skill

The table-to-graph sheet turns a tally into a table and the table into a column graph on a ready scale, then asks for the pattern in words. The model sheet builds the same data as a model, and a food chain as a model of a relationship, with arrows. The graph cards sharpen the reading: what a graph really shows, and what it does not.

From a tally to a table to a graph

A class counted the slaters it found in four places in the school garden. Slaters are small decomposers that eat dead leaves.

A. Count each tally and fill in the table.

B. Draw a bar for each place.

C. What pattern does the graph show? Why might the slaters be there?

Teacher note: the graph keeps each place beside its count, so the pattern shows at a glance. Ask children what is the same about the places with the most slaters.

Show it with a model

A model shows data or an idea in a form you can see or touch. It must keep each part beside its own amount, so the pattern still shows.

A. A model of our data

Ideas: towers of cubes, paper strips cut to length, a row of swatches, or drawings in a row.

B. A model of a relationship: a food chain

Draw each living thing in a box, then draw arrows from the food to the eater.

Does the graph show this?

Cut out the cards. Lay down one graph card, then sort its statement cards into two piles: the graph shows this, and the graph does not show this.

Teacher note: the answer sheet lists which pile each statement belongs in, and why.

Organise it, show it, read it

Use this stand-alone lesson to teach the skill on its own, before you fold it into a science topic. One set of slater counts becomes a table, a column graph and a tower model, so children see that the three representations carry the same pattern, then they sort statements about two more graphs.

We are learning to

• organise data in a table,
• show data as a simple column graph and as a physical model,
• use a representation to name a pattern.

Success criteria

• I can turn a tally into a table, and the table into a column graph on a scale.
• I can say what pattern a graph or a model shows, and what it does not show.

You need

• the table-to-graph sheet (scaffold 1), one per child, and rulers,
• interlocking cubes, about 30 per group, and the model sheet (scaffold 2),
• the graph cards from scaffold 3, one set per table, cut out ahead or by fast finishers,
• the free interactive unit on your board, if you have one (optional).

Lesson flow (about 30 minutes)

Running it shorter? Stop after Table, then graph, and build the towers and the food-chain model in your next science lesson.

Watch for these ideas

• Drawing a bar that ends on the label instead of at its value, or using an uneven scale.
• Thinking a model must look like the real thing, rather than keep each part beside its amount.
• Reading something into a graph it does not show, such as the colour of a material.

Make it easier, make it bigger

• Easier: count the tallies together, and draw the first bar as a class.
• Bigger: draw a food-chain model with four living things, or choose the best representation for a new data set and say why.

Answers and look-fors

The next sheet has the completed table and graph, a model check, the graph-card key and a quick three-level guide.

Answers and look-fors

Table to graph: the slaters

Part C: most slaters were under the log and fewest on the path; the places with the most are damp and shady, with dead leaves to eat. Odd counts end halfway between two lines on the scale of 2.

Make a model

A tower model has one cube for each slater: 14, 9, 6, 1 cubes, standing in a row like the bars. It is like the graph because each tower keeps its place beside its own amount; it is different because you count cubes instead of reading a scale. The food chain is gum leaves → caterpillar → magpie: each arrow points from the food to the living thing that eats it.

Graph cards: does the graph show this?

A quick three-level guide

A child at standard organises data in a table, shows it as a column graph or a model, and names the pattern it shows. Keep the sheets coming back whenever the class has data.