A table is linear when equal steps in x bring equal steps in y. These free printable worksheets ask it of a table of values, where the answer is worked out rather than recognized.
If they get stuck
The answer key prints on a separate page.
The child takes the steps: x rises evenly, and then either y rises by the same amount every time — a straight line — or the gaps change and the points bend. That is the standard's argument carried out on numbers instead of recited, and it is why the table is a separate sheet from the equation one: there is no shape to spot, only a pattern to measure.
Every table here steps x evenly, on purpose. For x = 1, 2, 4 a real line gives y-steps of m and 2m, which look like they change even though the rule is straight — an unfair question that the standard does not ask. With the x-steps kept equal, a constant y-step means a line and a changing one means a curve, cleanly. Check the x column is even before reading y.
One question from a sheet like this one, worked a step at a time — with a sentence saying what just happened and why.
Linear from a table, step by step