Bee Themed Tally Marks Activity for First Grade

Oh, HONEY! You are going to love this bee-themed tally mark activity for your students! It is Math all rolled into my favorite subject as of late: SPRING! Not only is this an excellent way for First Graders to practice using tally marks online, but it ties in beautifully with other bee-themed activities across the curriculum.

The activity features adorable honey bee graphics with movable tally marks. To engage in the activity, students must first count the bees. Then, they determine the correct number of tally marks by dragging them over.

Finally, make sure students practice counting the groups of tally marks to make sure they match the original count of bees. If not, drag the tallies back and try again.

Bee Themed Tally Marks Activity for First Grade covers a lot of ground: counting by 5s, counting on, grouping numbers, reading tallies, fine motor muscles and more!

Teaching Tally Marks

Tally marks are typically introduced in Kindergarten Math. Chant with me Kinder teachers: One, two, three, four, STOP. FIVE ACROSS!

As students become more comfortable with counting, skip counting and written numerals, they develop an understanding that numbers can be represented different ways.

Enter the tally mark. Typically, young mathematicians use tally marks as an introduction to creating bar graphs. Teachers conduct class polls on every subject from lunch to favorite leisure activities.

As students vote, the tally marks fly. WAIT: Is there an easier way to count ALL OF THESE LINES?

What if we GROUP them into groups of five? Wouldn’t it be easier/faster to count by 5s? Let’s create a tally chart…

And so the concept is introduced. From there, students begin to write their own tally marks and learn how to record the results on a class graph.

In First Grade, students delve deeper into the concept with more practice drawing and counting tally marks and a greater emphasis on the grouping and skip counting.

First Graders also begin to analyze the data by answering questions about it. How many more people chose PB & J than a hamburger for lunch? Which lunch did the fewest people pick? Most? How do you know?

How to Use Bee Themed Tally Marks Activity for First Grade

Click on the link below. Then, choose which version you want: Google Slides or Seesaw. When you clink on the link, it will open in the appropriate app and you’re good to go.

Remember to make a copy of the Google Slides version so it is your very own editable copy. In Slides, just click on the tally or group of tallies to highlight them in a blue box. Then, drag it when the cursor resembles a plus sign with an arrow on each end.

*In Google Slides, you must be in ‘Edit’ mode as opposed to ‘Present’ mode in order to manipulate the objects on the slide.

In Seesaw, use the Text tool (click on the large T) to be able to highlight each group of tally marks.

How to Differentiate for All Students

There are a variety of activities for teaching tally marks. The wonderful thing is that students with many different levels of understanding can engage in my bee-themed activity.

Provide MORE support by:

• Warm up by counting first by 1s, then by 5s, then by 5s leading into 1s
• Draw the tally marks on a whiteboard or piece of paper as the child initially counts the bees so they can see what the groups look like
• After the tallies have been placed, count the number of objects by 1s first, then by 5s
• Write the numeral that corresponds to the tally amount

Provide EXTENSION of the activity by:

• Ask students to draw the tally marks after dragging them and then record the corresponding numeral for each slide
• Create number sentences that go with the tally marks
• Encourage students to quickly recognize the groups of five because they include the diagonal tally mark
• Follow up with other tally marks worksheets and activities