Teach your students the different types of graphs with printable graphing activities, worksheets, games and more data activities created by teachers for teachers like you! Aligned with both TEKS and the Common Core math curriculum, the printables and digital activities in this collection can help you not just introduce each type of graph but also give your students practice using each one to represent and analyze data.

Whether it's your first year covering the various types of graphs in your math classes, or you're just looking for some handy tips and tricks, the Teach Starter teacher team has you covered. Read on for a primer that covers some of the main graph types plus a handy way to explain what a graph is to your students.

What Is a Graph? A Kid-Friendly Definition

Before you can start discussing the various graph types, it helps to explain what a graph is in math. That's where our definition could come in handy! A graph is a visual way to show data. Graphs help make information easier to understand and analyze.

What Are the Different Types of Graphs?

There is a long list of different types of graphs that mathematicians use to represent numbers and other forms of data. So, which graph types do your students need to know about right now? Let's take a look at the more common graphing types we use in elementary and middle school math classes:

1. Bar Graphs

A bar graph is a type of graph that uses rectangular shapes called bars to represent quantities or values of data. Bars on a bar graph will be different heights or different lengths to represent the quantity or value. This makes it easy to compare the values.

2. Line Graphs

A line graph uses points that are connected by lines to show the relationship between two sets of data. Line graphs are helpful when we want to see changes in data sets over a period of time. an illustration of a line graph example appears beside text that reads Line graphs use points and lines to represent data and how it changes.

an illustration of a line graph example appears beside text that reads Line graphs use points and lines to represent data and how it changes.

3. Pictographs

The "picto" in pictographs refers to pictures, which are used in this graph type to represent data.

4. Pie Charts

Did you know that a graph is a kind of chart? Although pie charts may not be called "pie graphs," these circles divided by lines to resemble slices of pie are most definitely a type of graph. Pie charts can be used to represent parts of a whole or categories of a whole, and they help us understand the proportion or percentage of each category.

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