GoalCount the legs of animals and record the animals in a tally chart.
New words
insect · a small animal with six legstally · a mark you make for each one you count; every fifth mark goes across the other fourrecord · to write down what you find
Explanation
Animals have different numbers of legs. A bird has two legs. A cat, a horse and a frog have four legs. An insect has six legs. Ants, bees and beetles are insects. A spider has eight legs, so it is not an insect. A snake, a worm and a snail have no legs. We can count animals and record the numbers in a tally chart. We make one mark for each animal. The fifth mark goes across the other four, like this: 卌. Groups of five are easy to count. Then we count the marks to find the total.
legs
0
2
4
6
8
an animal
snake
bird
cat
ant
spider
Worked examples
Ravi finds a beetle, an ant and a bee in the garden. Each one has six legs, so all three are insects.
Ravi counts the legs on a spider. It has eight. A spider is not an insect because insects have only six legs.
animal
legs
tally
hen
2
||||
cow
4
|||
sheep
4
卌 |
Lola counts animals at the farm. She makes a mark for each animal in a tally chart. She counts 4 hens, 3 cows and 6 sheep.
Class activity
Leg count (with an adult): find ten animals in books, on toys or in pictures, or look in the garden for minibeasts (put them back gently and wash your hands). Count the legs of each one. Make a tally chart with the headings 0 legs, 2 legs, 4 legs, 6 legs and 8 legs. Put one mark in the right column for every animal. Which column has the most marks?
Practice
1
How many legs does an insect have?
Six.
2
How many legs does each animal have?
a 2; b 8; c 0; d 4.
3
Kenji’s tally chart shows 卌 | for cats. How many cats did he count?
animal
tally
cat
卌 |
Six cats. A group of five plus one more makes six.
