Teacher notes

• Some students find it difficult to find the overall meaning of a graph. They can read off specific values but not be able to tell you what the overall picture is that the graph is telling them. Practice at doing this is important.
• Remind students that all graphs must have a title, labels on the axes, and a sensible scale on the vertical axis.
• Remind students to look at the title, the labels on the axes and the scale on a graph when reading it.
• The little symbol that indicates the scale does not start at zero should be explained.
• Encourage students to look for patterns and anything that stands out in a graph.
• If any of the topics raised in this chapter are of particular interest to your students, such as pocket money, you could note this as an idea for a survey in chapter 19. You could ask students to write the amount of pocket money they get (or think they deserve) anonymously. Another extension activity would be to see how many hours of sleep students in the class get and how much they think they need. Students could then compare results to see who has more or less sleep than that recommended for good health. It would be useful for students to be made aware of this as they are becoming more independent at this age.