It’s time to teach those tricky tally marks! They might seem straight forward and simple… but tally marks actually involve a ton of math skills! Keep reading for some fun and easy ways to teach and use them in your classroom all year long.
Why do some of your students find tally marks so tricky? Check out all the skills that are involved!
•counting
•one-to-one correspondence
•representing numbers
•grouping
•counting by 5s and 10s
•counting on…
Start Hands-On
As with all math skills it makes the most sense to start with hands on activities using manipulatives. It’s fun too! Use popsicle sticks, pretzel sticks, Q-tips or even pool noodles for a larger than life tally mark lesson. Teach a guided lesson using one manipulative and then add others to your math centers for even more hands on practice.
Use a Rhyme
Teach this simple rhyme and display as an anchor chart in your classroom.
Real Life Tallying
This is the part that really makes them stick! Use them authentically in the classroom. Anytime you are counting things as a group.. use a tally. Taking a vote on the next book to read or the game for gym class… tally the votes. Students can use tallies to keep track of points for games or when counting sets of objects. Always a class favourite is taking a survey. My Totally Tally Marks resource has 20 different student surveys and a blank copy for them to make their own.
Practice
There are lots of ways for your students to practice tally marks! I like using simple clear worksheets when students are first learning to make and count with tallies. Then adding games, puzzles and matching activities to math centers to keep them practicing all year long!
Head over to TPT to check out my Tally Marks unit! Click Below.
Need more math activities for your classroom?
Read these posts: Teaching Number Words, Ordering Numbers Activities & Number Puzzles
