A stem-and-leaf plot is a list of numbers stood on its side: the tens down the left, the ones along each row. These free printable worksheets ask for values read back off the plot — the largest, the smallest, the one in the middle.
If they get stuck
The answer key prints on a separate page.
It is the one display that keeps every original value. A stem of 3 with leaves 1, 2 and 5 means 31, 32 and 35, all still there and all still readable, which is what a histogram gives up when it groups. Reading a row back out loud is usually enough for the idea to land.
Because the leaves are written in order, the plot sorts the data for free — and that is what makes the median easy. Counting in from both ends of an already-ordered list is a much smaller job than sorting fifteen numbers first, and it is worth pointing out that the display did the hard part.
One question from a sheet like this one, worked a step at a time — with a sentence saying what just happened and why.
Stem-and-leaf plots, step by step