Model the pose out loud once, end to end: start from a loose idea (travel to school), reject open or double answers, lock four exclusive categories (Walk, Cycle, Bus, Car), then state the finished question. Take three hands-up suggestions for categories only, not open call-outs, and steer the class onto that small clear set.

Slip to watch: a pupil offers a mixed answer ("car then walk"). Name it as two categories and push them to pick the main one so every pupil still fits exactly one.

Do not collect the full tally yet. The point of this step is the pose: question plus fixed answers agreed before counting begins. The class survey question comes in Try It Together.

Talk through a finished example: if Walk has twelve tally marks, count the gates in fives then the loose marks, and say the one number aloud, that is the frequency. That frequency sets Walk's bar twelve high. "Twelve marks, twelve high."

Hold out for the link before naming it: ask what the tallest and shortest bars would tell us, and let a pupil say most and fewest before you tie those to mode and range.

Talk this one through together — pupils take turns at the board and the class agrees or corrects out loud.

Settle the four categories before any voting; if the class wants different games, swap them but keep exactly four so the chart stays readable. Rotate four recorders through so several pupils practise the gate. Watch for the fifth-mark slip — the fifth mark crosses the previous four, it is not a fifth upright.

Note the class's four frequencies once the tally is complete — you can carry them into the chart and investigation later in place of the worked-example numbers if you want pupils to work on their own data.

This is the practice round — pupils take turns at the board, check each answer, and the class confirms before moving on. Keep the board work brisk rather than over-explaining.

The interactive fixes the scale (each square is 1), so read the labels as the target heights to build. Talk about scale as you go: ask the class why a tall chart in ones is fine here, and whether counting in twos would fit a bigger survey — this stays a discussion, the interactive itself does not change scale.

The fourth build uses the worked-example counts 11, 8, 5, 3. If you tallied your own class figures in Try It Together and want pupils to work on their real data, substitute those four counts here instead. Once the class chart is built, use it to name the mode (tallest bar) and work out the range (largest count minus smallest) — that is the key one, and it is the same subtraction every time.