Read a table

What it looks like when your child can do it

• — Asked how tall the bean plant was on day 4, your child finds the row for day 4, slides across to the height column, and reads 9 centimeters.
• — Your child reads the column headings out loud before hunting for anything, so they know what each number means.
• — When two answers look possible, your child puts one finger on the row and one on the column and checks where they meet.

How to teach it at the kitchen table

1. 01

   Start with a table about your own house

   Draw three rows for three people in the family and two columns, favorite food and shoe size. Fill it in together. A table about people your child knows makes the rows and columns mean something before any numbers do.

2. 02

   Name the parts out loud

   Rows go across like the rows of seats in a car. Columns go up and down like the columns holding up a porch. The words in the top row are the headings, and they tell you what every number under them is.

3. 03

   Use two fingers

   Ask a question from the table. Your child puts one finger on the right row and one finger on the right column, then slides both until they meet. The answer is in that one box.

4. 04

   Turn it around

   Now point at a box and ask your child what it tells you. Reading a box back into a sentence, like "Dad's shoe size is 11," proves they know what the headings mean.

You will need: Paper and a pencil · A ruler or a strip of paper

Try it together

1. Try 1

   Draw a table with the headings Day and Height. Fill in: Day 1, 2 cm. Day 2, 4 cm. Day 3, 7 cm. Day 4, 9 cm. Ask how tall the plant was on day 3.

   Listen for  7 cm. Watch that your child finds the day 3 row first, then moves across.

2. Try 2

   Using the same table, ask on which day the plant was 4 cm tall.

   Listen for  Day 2. This one runs backwards, from the number to its row, which is harder and worth a second try.

3. Try 3

   Point to the box that says 9 cm and ask your child to say what it means in a whole sentence.

   Listen for  Something like "On day 4 the plant was 9 centimeters tall." Both the day and the height belong in the sentence.

4. Try 4

   Ask how much the plant grew from day 1 to day 4.

   Listen for  7 cm, because 9 minus 2 is 7. This takes two readings and a subtraction, so it is the stretch question.

Watch for

• — Reading the neighboring row by mistake. It is the most common slip, and a ruler under the row fixes it.

If it is not there yet

• — Go back to a two-by-two table about your family with only words in it, no numbers, until finding a box is automatic.
• — Lay a ruler or a strip of paper under one row so the other rows disappear while your child reads across.

A few days of this is normal, and it is time well spent. The lesson will still be there, and it will go faster.

Where this skill comes up

• How Scientists Actually Find Out · Lesson 21

  A Table Before You Start

  Needs it because your child pulls values out of a finished table on the front before building an empty one on the back.