Charts and data games
Choose a game, or try a different year.
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
For parents and teachers
These maths games bring together related learning across Years 2 to 6. Start with a familiar skill, then try the next challenge when your child is ready. A school may teach these ideas in a different order; use the curriculum statements below to choose a suitable game.
The quoted headings and statements come from the National Curriculum in England. Every game has its own explanation and free printable. Talk through a question together before playing independently, and use the printable to return to a tricky idea away from the screen.
Notes on each game and its curriculum statement
Key Stage 1
Year 2: Pictograms and tally charts
Statistics: “interpret and construct simple pictograms, tally charts, block diagrams and tables”
Year 2 pupils learn to read and make simple pictograms, tally charts, block diagrams and tables. A pictogram uses a symbol to stand for a number of things, and the key tells you how many.
In this game each question describes a pictogram or tally chart. Children read the key, multiply or count on to find the total, and compare two rows to answer questions such as 'how many more?'. Reading the key first is the habit that matters most.
Play Pictograms and tally charts · Free printable
Year 2: Counting tally marks
Statistics: “interpret and construct simple pictograms, tally charts, block diagrams and tables”
Year 2 pupils use tally charts to record data. Tally marks are drawn in groups of five: four upright marks with a fifth drawn across them, sometimes called a gate.
In this game each card describes a tally, such as two gates of five and three single marks, and children match it to its total. Counting the gates in 5s first and then the single marks is quicker and more reliable than counting every mark.
Lower Key Stage 2
Year 3: Reading bar charts with scales
Statistics: “interpret and present data using bar charts, pictograms and tables”
Year 3 pupils interpret and present data in bar charts, pictograms and tables. Their bar charts use scales that go up in 2s, 5s or 10s rather than 1s.
In this game children read the value of a bar from its scale, including bars that stop halfway between two marked numbers. Working out what each gap on the scale stands for is the key skill.
Play Reading bar charts with scales · Free printable
Year 3: How many more? How many fewer?
Statistics: “solve one-step and two-step questions [for example, 'How many more?' and 'How many fewer?'] using information presented in scaled bar charts and pictograms and tables”
Year 3 pupils solve one-step and two-step questions using information in scaled bar charts, pictograms and tables, such as 'how many more?' and 'how many fewer?'.
In this game each card gives two values from a chart, and children match it to the difference. Whether the question says 'more' or 'fewer', the answer is the gap between the two numbers.
Play How many more? How many fewer? · Free printable
Year 4: Time graphs
Statistics: “interpret and present discrete and continuous data using appropriate graphical methods, including bar charts and time graphs”
Year 4 pupils interpret and present discrete and continuous data using appropriate graphs, including bar charts and time graphs. A time graph shows how something changes over time, such as the temperature through a day.
In this game children read values from time graphs described in each question, find rises and falls between two times, and work out distances travelled at a steady speed. Each answer comes from reading two points and comparing them.
Play Time graphs · Free printable
Year 4: Discrete or continuous data?
Statistics: “interpret and present discrete and continuous data using appropriate graphical methods, including bar charts and time graphs”
Year 4 pupils learn to interpret and present discrete and continuous data using appropriate graphs. Choosing the right graph starts with knowing which kind of data you have.
In this game children sort data sets into discrete and continuous. Discrete data is counted in whole numbers, like goals in a match. Continuous data is measured and can take any value in a range, like a child's height.
Upper Key Stage 2
Year 5: Reading timetables
Statistics: “complete, read and interpret information in tables, including timetables”
Year 5 pupils complete, read and interpret information in tables, including timetables. Bus and train timetables use 24-hour times and list the stops in order down the side.
In this game every question shows the same bus timetable. Children find journey times between stops and the next bus after a given time. Reading across a row and down a column carefully is the skill being practised.
Play Reading timetables · Free printable
Year 5: Line graphs: rises and falls
Statistics: “solve comparison, sum and difference problems using information presented in a line graph”
Year 5 pupils solve comparison, sum and difference problems using information presented in a line graph.
In this game each card gives two readings from a temperature line graph, and children match it to the change: how much it rose or fell. Saying both the direction and the size of the change is what makes an answer complete.
Play Line graphs: rises and falls · Free printable
Year 6: The mean
Statistics: “calculate and interpret the mean as an average”
Year 6 pupils calculate and interpret the mean as an average. To find the mean, add all the values and divide by how many values there are.
In this game children find the mean of small data sets, and work backwards from a mean to a total. Every mean is a whole number, so children can focus on the method.
Play The mean · Free printable
Year 6: Pie charts
Statistics: “interpret and construct pie charts and line graphs and use these to solve problems”
Year 6 pupils interpret and construct pie charts and line graphs and use them to solve problems. A pie chart shows how a whole is shared, so each sector is a fraction of the whole.
In this game children match sectors to their angles, because a whole pie chart is 360°, and to amounts, because a fraction of the pie is the same fraction of the total. Linking fractions, angles and amounts is the skill being practised.