Have you ever noticed how ocean waves move? The up and down pattern that they makes is called a wave graph. Such graphs are an important part of science topics such as sound, heat and energy. Believe it or not, the heart pumps blood in a wave pattern also which can be drawn on a graph.

Graphs are a part of everyday life. In fact, we use them daily for directions and counting! For example, if I’m explaining the directions to my home to a friend, I might say ‘the Petrol Pump is on your left, take a left turn from there’, I can also easily sketch these directions on a graph. If a newspaper story says that 30% of the world’s teenagers say that chocolates are their favorite snack, this can be shown better with the help of a graph.

Graphs are a part of math in almost every grade. It’s an important topic to learn as it has several advantages. The biggest advantage of learning how to use graphs is that it makes it easy to display information. Very complicated facts and figures can be easily explained when displayed on a graph. Graphs are like pictures that speak a thousand words!

Computer softwares like Microsoft Excel have made it very easy to make graphs –you can also choose your graph’s colors and type to make it more attractive! Engineers, researchers, scientists, doctors, astronomers, and pilots all make use of graphs regularly. So what are we waiting for? Let’s start learning how to graph!

Math Graph Basics

Graphs are drawn on a coordinate plane. This is a flat space made by two lines which are perpendicular to each other, which means that the two lines make an angle of 90 degrees with each other. The space they create is called a plane. On that plane, the horizontal axis is called the X-axis and the vertical axis is the Y-axis.

Using the x-axis and y-axis we can plot points on the coordinate plane. For example, a point with coordinates (4, 3) means that the point is 4 spaces to the right on the x- axis and 3 spaces upwards on the y- axis. Where do we move upwards and right from? This is from the point called the origin which has coordinates (0, 0).

This was just a basic description of graphs which will help you understand the coordinate plane. We can learn all the concepts of graphs online.

Graph Games
Grades 2 – 4: Interactive games to learn coordinates with links to many other fun graph games

Coordinates Game
Grades 2 – 3: Move Billy Bug to the food by entering the correct coordinates

Data Picking for Kids
Grades 2 – 4: A game to teach basic data picking for graphs

Learn with Graph Mole
Grades 2 – 5: A fun game in which students choose which coordinates correspond to the mole on the graph in order to stop him from eating all the vegetables. This teaches plotting coordinates on graphs and students can move to different levels once they learn the basics.

Basic Graphing
Grade 4: Helps introduce graphs and working with them by solving quizzes

Different Types of Graphs
There are several types of graphs and each type is especially suited for different types of information. The following are some of the most commonly used graphs:

• Line Graphs: A straight lines drawn on the coordinate plane refers to a line graph. There can be more than one line. These lines show how two variables (usually x and y) are related to each other i.e. how changes in one variable affect the other variable.

An easy example could be the line graph of your mum’s shopping expense! The x-axis could show the items bought and the y-axis shows the total bill. A line graph in this case will explain how increasing items increases the shopping bill. The slope of a line graph is very important and shows how fast one variable is changing as compared to the other. A line graph is a way to summarize how two pieces of information are related and how they vary depending on one another. The numbers along the side of the line graph are called the scale.

• Pie Charts: A pie chart is a circle graph divided into pieces where each piece of the pie displays the size of some related piece of information. Hence, pie charts are used to display the sizes of parts that make up the whole.

For example, you could have a pie chart of all the people in your school. One piece could be girl students, another piece could be boy students, and another could be teachers!

• Bar Graphs: These are graphs which consist of an axis and a series of labeled horizontal or vertical bars that show different values for each bar. A graph with horizontal bars is called a horizontal bar graph and one with vertical bars is called a vertical bar graph. The numbers along a side of the bar graph are called the scale.

We could use a bar graph to display the number of different types of cars in the city. So the horizontal axis could have the car names on it like Toyota, Honda and Suzuki. The vertical bars will become the scale in this example showing the number of cars. Each vertical bar would have a different length which would represent the number of the type of car.
There are many other types of graphs including: column graphs, box-plot, area graphs and polar graphs. You can learn all about these at:

Tables and Graphs
Grades 1 – 5: Information on the various types of tables and graphs as well as graphics and quizzes to help understand these ideas better

Bar Graph Game
Grade 2 – 4: An interactive game to teach the concept of a scale in bar chart graphs

Create Graphs
Grades 2 – 4: Allows you to create different graphs like bar charts, pie charts and line graphs to understand the difference between them

More Graph Math
Grades 2 – 6: Links to more than 15 authentic websites that teach graphs such as bar, line, and pictographs. Many of the sites are interactive and demonstrate how graphing works. They also include several hands-on activities.

Reading Line Plots
Grade 4: Teaches different ways to make and interpret line graphs with helpful exercises at the end

Graphs in Detail
Grades 6 – 10: Detailed lessons that teach the construction of different types of graphs, and also compare the differences between them

Learning More about Graphs
There are many other concepts in graphs. A very important one is using equations to solve graphs. It’s also very important to learn about co-linear points, hyperbolas and parabolas. These and many other concepts can be learnt in fun ways from:

Graphing Linear Equations
Grade 4: Step-wise illustrations on making a graph of a liner equation

Making Graphs
Grades 5 – 7: Teaches how to make graphs of different kinds of equations

Graphing Tool
Grades 4 – 10: A grapher for teachers, parents and students to create different graphs and also make changes to them

Graphical Solutions
Grades 5 – 10: Slide tutorials to teach how cubic and quadratic equations can be solved using graphs

Graph Math Tutorials
Grades 5 – 10: Various graphing tutorials on data display and polynomial equations with handouts, self-checking and other resources

Graph Math Help
All Grades: Links to more than 50 authentic websites for graph concepts and interactive graphing games

Graphs and Statistics
Grades 4 – 5: A brief explanation with examples of the different types of graphs and meanings of important statistical calculations in graphs

Graphing Worksheets
Grades 2 – 5: Plenty of worksheets of various graph topics for teachers to print and use in class

Graph worksheets for Kids
Grades 1 – 3: Printable worksheets for teachers and parents to collect data for graphs and practice making them with their kids

Data Interpretation Games
Grades 1 – 4: Games to teach what data in graphs means

Graph Games by Wart
Grades 2 – 5: Games to teach different types of graphs and data collection and interpretation

Home School for Graphs
Grades 4 – 8: Links to more than 30 online tutorials and videos to teach graph concepts

The Big Picture of Graphs
Grades 3 – 7: Games and activities on graphs and important concepts

Johnnie Graph Games
Grades 2 – 6: Different games to teach graph topics like sorting data, mean, mode, median and many more

Graph Presentations
Grades 4 – 8: Concise presentations on different concepts of graphs

Other great math links on StartLocal

Math: Great Graphing Resources Grades 1-8

Fun Math Resources Grades 3 - 8

Fun Math Resources Grades 6 - 8

Guide to Geometry

Guide to Fractions

Guide to the history of Math