Empower your students to become active data collectors and early statisticians with our ASK & TALLY: DATA COLLECTION WORKSHEETS – a practical, student-led resource that turns simple yes/no questions into meaningful classroom investigations. These worksheets provide a clear framework for students to design a question, collect responses from classmates, and represent their findings in multiple formats. Whether exploring favourite foods, hobbies or daily habits, this resource gives students the tools to gather, organise and interpret real-world data – all while developing key mathematical and social skills.

Each worksheet prompts students to come up with a yes/no question and survey their classmates to collect responses. From there, they use one of three response templates to organise and display their data. The formats include:

• A simple “ask and tick” chart – ideal for younger students or early writers
• An “ask and tally” sheet to reinforce tallying skills and counting in fives
• A “tally and graph” option that adds an additional step of representing results visually

These templates allow for flexible differentiation and can be used across multiple year levels. Whether students are just learning to collect data or extending their understanding through analysis and graphing, the ASK & TALLY: DATA COLLECTION WORKSHEETS support students at every stage. By combining maths, oral language and social interaction, this resource is perfect for data units, maths rotations, STEM lessons or even getting-to-know-you activities at the start of the year.

Key Learning Outcomes:

• ✅ Formulate and ask a yes/no question for data collection
• ✅ Conduct a simple class survey to gather real-world data
• ✅ Record results using ticks or tally marks
• ✅ Represent data in a graph or chart format
• ✅ Reflect on and interpret findings using mathematical language

What’s Included:

• Ask and Tick worksheet – perfect for Foundation or early Year 1
• Ask and Tally worksheet – great for reinforcing tally mark skills
• Tally and Graph worksheet – ideal for visualising data in a bar graph or column format
• Response and reflection prompts – encouraging students to write about what they discovered

Materials Needed:

• Printed worksheets
• Pencils, markers or crayons for recording and graphing
• Clipboards or hard surfaces (optional) for collecting data around the classroom

How to Use:

1. Have students brainstorm and write a simple yes/no question (e.g. “Do you like strawberries?”)
2. Distribute the chosen worksheet template for students to record responses
3. Allow time for students to walk around and interview classmates
4. Once data is collected, guide students through tallying or graphing their results
5. Encourage reflection with sentence prompts such as “Most students said yes” or “Only a few people said no”

Ideas for Classroom Use:

• 💡 Use as part of a data and graphing maths unit
• 💡 Include in STEM rotations or inquiry-based lessons
• 💡 Integrate into literacy by asking students to write survey summaries
• 💡 Turn into a weekly question routine where students explore different topics over time
• 💡 Compare results across different classes or year levels to introduce broader investigations

Teacher Tips:

• 💛 Model how to ask a question politely and record responses clearly
• 💛 Encourage students to think of creative or curriculum-related questions (e.g. linked to science or HASS topics)
• 💛 Pair students to support those who need help with reading or recording responses
• 💛 Extend by having students create their own bar graphs or pie charts based on their tallies
• 💛 Use graphing vocabulary during discussion – such as more than, fewer, equal to, total, and most common

You might also be interested in our pre-filled data response worksheets to match our ‘Yes or No? Data Collection PowerPoint – a perfect companion resource for whole-class modelling and guided practice.

ASK & TALLY: DATA COLLECTION WORKSHEETS turn student questions into meaningful maths investigations – promoting active participation, real-world connections and data literacy all in one!