Take three hands-up answers for the tally count (the answer is 17). Then put the three questions to the class. Steer the talk toward which question we can settle by counting — the rain question is a prediction, not a count. Keep this brief; the sorting work happens in the next step.

Categories: Walk, Cycle, Bus, Car. One mark per child, fifth mark crosses the four as a gate.

Model the gate slowly: four strokes, then one, two, three, four, GATE as the diagonal fifth closes it.

Point at each gate, class chants five, ten, fifteen, then the spare strokes.

Strugglers: keep the drawn gate pattern visible as a prompt, say the rhythm aloud together.

Frequency table draws out: Walk 12, Cycle 5, Bus 8, Car 3. Read 12 as two gates plus two.

Pictogram is a preview only, do not work it out now: same data, one icon per child, the shape the answer takes later. Don't dwell.

No-gate example: six loose strokes, no grouping. Time the class counting these versus reading a gate. The slowness is why we cross every fifth mark.

Try Together: pupils take turns at the board and the class agrees or corrects out loud.

Hold the class to a tight category set (three to five named games) before any tallying starts — a question with too many categories never reads cleanly. Insist the diagonal lands on every fifth mark, not the sixth. Revoice a strong contribution: so each gate is worth exactly five. Watch for pupils who write a fifth straight stroke instead of crossing — catch it on the board the moment it happens.

Run this as a brief at-the-window count from pupils' seats — nobody leaves the room. Give the class about two minutes to tally one question (car colours, jumper colours, vehicle types) onto a chosen set of three or four categories, then call it and move to the board.

On the board, use the tally chart to read the frequency aloud as a class for each group. As a quick check, ask the class to compare the board frequencies against the gates shown, and confirm the totals together. This keeps the read-back active without leaving seats.

If the view is poor, drop the window count and just read the Walk/Cycle/Bus/Car chart on the board, asking pupils to call the frequency for each row.

Keep this short. The tally-to-frequency skill from today is the input for the bar-chart lesson later in this unit, so leave the class confident that they can read a tally fast.