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How Big Are Classes 5, 6 and 7?

Use the two sets of data to find out how many children there are in Classes 5, 6 and 7.

Presenting the Project

Have a look at all the information Class 5 have collected about themselves. Can you find out whose birthday it is today?

Real Statistics

Have a look at this table of how children travel to school. How does it compare with children in your class?

The Pet Graph

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level

The Pet Graph


Tim's class collected information about all their pets. They have six different kinds of pets between them.

This is the block graph they are making to show how many of each pet the class has altogether.

graph showing bars of 10, 4, 6, 1, 8 and 3

The children have not yet put in the animal names under each column. Can you do this for them using the information below?

There are two less cats than dogs.
Only one child has a parrot at home.
The number of fish added to the number of gerbils is equal to the number of dogs.
There are twice as many fish as hamsters.
There are half the number of gerbils as there are cats.


Why do this problem?

This problem is a simple introduction to bar charts which never-the-less requires both logical working and high level thinking. To be successful learners need to understand what the graph is saying and relating that to the information they have been given.

Key questions

How many different kinds of pets do the class have between them?
How do you know that ...?
Why can't the yellow bar represent ...?
Which bar was the easiest to identify and why?
What can you work out next?
Would it help to write down what you know?

Possible extension

Learners could go on to How Big Are Classes 5, 6 and 7? or You Never Get a Six.