Four uprights and a line struck through them: a tally is the first tool a child meets for counting things that will not hold still. These free printable sheets ask them to read one, which is the counting half of a measurement standard.
If they get stuck
The answer key prints on a separate page.
The diagonal is the whole point. Without it a tally is a row of ones and a child counts them one at a time; with it the row becomes fives and a two, and counting turns into skip counting. The gates on these sheets are drawn struck through their own four marks rather than as a fifth upright leaning over, because that is what the child will be asked to draw.
Reading comes before recording, and a printable can only mark the reading. So these sheets give the chart and ask the questions — how many of this, how many more of that, how many altogether — and leave the tallying itself to the classroom, where there is something to count.
One question from a sheet like this one, worked a step at a time — with a sentence saying what just happened and why.
Tally charts, step by step