Imagine, Andy kept track of how many gifts he received from family and friends for a few years.
He made a table of the data.
To make it easier to understand the changes over time, he drew a line graph of the data.
A line graph is a chart that shows how values change over time.
Line graphs have points and connected lines.
Line graphs have an x-axis and a y-axis.
The x-axis is the horizontal ↔️ line at the bottom. It shows the time over which the data was gathered.
The y-axis is the vertical ↕️ line on the left. It tells about how much or how many.
We write the title of the graph at the top. It explains the purpose of the graph.
Each axis also gets a label to tell you what the numbers are all about.
Let's practice with another example.
Jeremy recorded his time spent gardening each day this week. He created a line graph to show his findings.
How many hours did Jeremy spend gardening on Monday?
Yes, 3 hours.
On which day did he spend the most time gardening?
You got it. On Saturday, he spent the most time.
On which day did he spend the least time?
Yes, on Wednesday.
How many more hours did he spend gardening on Saturday than on Wednesday?
6 - 1 = 5 hours.
How many hours total did he spend gardening this week?
Let's add all the hours from Monday to Sunday.
3 + 2 + 1 + 4 + 3 + 6 + 4 = 23
Jeremy spent 23 hours gardening this week.
Let's go back to Andy's table about toys.
Can you turn this into a line graph?
The first step is to draw the x-axis and the y-axis. Then, write the title at the top.
The x-axis is the horizontal line. We wrote the "years" on it.
The y-axis is the vertical line. We wrote numbers on it.
Next, start plotting the points.
Look at the first line of the table. It shows a data point for the year 2017.
We see that Andy received 5 toys in the year 2017.
Above 2017, find 5 and mark the point with a dot.
Now, look at the second line of the table.
The table shows that Andy received 8 toys in year 2018.
Find 2018 in the x-axis. Then above it, find 8 and mark that point with a dot.
Let's follow the same steps to fill in the rest of the graph.
We mark the number of toys received for year 2019.
Then we do the same for year 2020.
The last step is to connect the points.
There you have it.
Andy extends the graph to show the toys that he received in year 2021.
How many toys did he receive in 2021?
Correct. He received 7 toys.
Now, you know how to read line graphs and make them, too.
Complete the practice to help you remember for longer.