Bar graphs worksheets

One graph, three questions under it — the shape a bar graph worksheet has always had on paper. These free printable sheets ask a child to read the bars rather than draw them, which is the half of the standard that a printable can actually mark.

Bar graphs
Bar graphs worksheet — Scale of 1, 2, 5, or 10, free printable with answer key

The answer key prints on a separate page.

What's on this sheet

A bar graph question is only a question if the graph has one answer, so no two bars on these sheets are the same height and the tallest and shortest are always clear. That sounds obvious until a generated sheet asks which pet is most popular and two bars tie — the child argues, the marker cannot settle it, and the sheet was wrong before anyone printed it.

Why this sheet works

The scale is the difficulty, not the number of bars. A grade 2 graph is marked in ones, which a child reads by counting gridlines; a grade 3 graph is marked in twos, fives, or tens, and the same picture now needs multiplying before it can be compared. That single dial is the difference between the two standards, so it is the one control the sheet offers.

How this one works

Stickers in each packet

key:1 = 1 sticker
Stars:6 up6 stickers
Hearts:1 up1 stickers
Moons:3 up3 stickers
Suns:5 up5 stickers
Stars:6 up6 stickers
Hearts:1 up1 stickers
Moons:3 up3 stickers
Suns:5 up5 stickers
3 stickers
  1. Check the key first, every time. Here one square is one sticker, so counting is enough — but that is a fact to check, not to assume.
  2. So the counts read straight off: Stars 6, Hearts 1, Moons 3, Suns 5.
  3. Now the question, on the NUMBERS rather than the marks: Stars is 6 − 3 = 3 more than Moons. So the answer is 3 stickers.