Bar graph maker for kids

What the bar graph maker does

A bar graph uses bars of different heights to compare amounts in different categories. On this page you pick a ready data set (Favorite fruit, Pets in our class or Weather this month) or choose My own and type the category names. There can be up to 6 bars, and each one is set from 0 to 20 by dragging or with the plus and minus buttons. The scale can count up in steps of 1, 2 or 5.

The readout gives the total of all the bars, the most and least popular categories, and the difference between the two biggest bars. Those are the questions children are asked about graphs in school, so they can check their own reading.

Why make graphs, not just read them

Children understand a graph better when they have built one. Setting a bar to 7 makes it clear that the height, read against the scale, is the number. Changing the scale step shows that the same data can be drawn in different ways, and that the scale is what tells you the value. Using My own with a real question, such as favorite colors in the family, turns a graph into an answer to something the child actually wants to know.

Common mix-ups

• Counting grid lines instead of reading the scale. With a step of 2, each line is worth 2, so a bar halfway between 6 and 8 is 7.
• Thinking the first bar matters most. For categories like fruit or pets, the order of the bars does not change the data.
• Confusing how many more with how many altogether. How many more is a difference, found by subtracting; the total is found by adding.
• Reading the top of a bar against the wrong line. Encourage children to run a finger straight across from the top of the bar to the scale.

A 10-minute graphing routine

• Choose My own and agree on a question with 3 or 4 possible answers, such as a favorite season.
• Type the answers as category names and collect replies from family or classmates.
• Set each bar. Ask the child to predict the tallest bar before the last one is set.
• Ask three questions: which is most, which is least and how many more chose the top answer than the second. Check each against the readout.
• Change the scale step to 2 or 5 and ask whether the answers changed. They did not, only the picture did.

Where it fits by grade

• Grade 1: sort data into up to three categories and answer how many in each, in total, and how many more or less (1.MD.C.4).
• Grade 2: draw a bar graph with a single-unit scale for up to four categories and solve compare problems from it (2.MD.D.10).
• Grade 3: draw scaled bar graphs, where each step is worth more than one, and solve one- and two-step how many more and how many less problems (3.MD.B.3).
• England calls these bar charts. Year 2 uses tally charts, pictograms and block diagrams, Year 3 introduces bar charts with how many more and how many fewer questions, and Year 4 continues interpreting and presenting data.

Learning more

Reading data connects to addition and subtraction, which are skills on Eurekami's skill map, and Daily Practice brings them back for review when they start to fade. Teachers can print worksheets with answer keys, and lessons draw diagrams live from the numbers in each question.