MathGrade 2ages 7–8
🪵 Tally marks
A child who counts a tally "gate" of five strokes as five separate ones, without recognizing the bundle, will lose track once several gates appear side by side.
Try this lesson freeNo card needed. The first lesson is free.
Download on the App StoreWhat your child learns
- Each stroke is one. Five strokes close into a gate.
- The gate looks like four and one crossing them.
- 12 = two gates (10) plus two strokes.
- Don't count a gate as one. It is five.
The mistake most kids make here
Counting every stroke as 1 without bundling fives.
Try one question
One tally gate equals…
One gate
- 1
- 5
- 10
Answer
5 — Yes. Four strokes and a fifth across them.
How Maya teaches it
Your child tells Maya what they did in class. She teaches this topic at her desk, asks questions with tappable answers, and when the answer is wrong she explains why that answer was tempting instead of saying “try again”. She remembers what did not land and comes back to it.
Your child has it when they can: 12 is two gates plus 2.
How to help at home
Tally marks introduce a new idea: a group of strokes can be counted as one bundle of five, the way coins or bills get grouped in real money. Until that clicks, every stroke looks equally important on its own.
Draw four vertical strokes together, then have your child draw the fifth crossing through them diagonally to "close the gate." Do this for a few groups, then ask them to count in fives across the completed gates, then add any loose strokes at the end.
If your child counts stroke by stroke instead of gate by gate, cover the loose fifth stroke with a finger and ask: "how many are in this closed group?" Naming the whole closed gate as "five" — not five separate marks — is the shift to look for.
A sign they've got it: shown two full gates and two loose strokes, they say "ten, eleven, twelve" by counting the gates in fives first, rather than counting every stroke one at a time from the start.
Questions parents ask
- Why does my child count tally marks one at a time instead of in fives?
- Counting one at a time is the more familiar skill. Grouping strokes into fives is a new idea that needs its own practice, separate from basic counting.
- What does a completed tally gate look like?
- Four vertical strokes standing together, with a fifth stroke drawn diagonally across them. That crossing stroke is what "closes the gate" and signals a group of five.
- What's a good way to practice tally marks at home?
- Track something real over a week — cups of water, minutes of reading, or trips to the fridge — using tally marks, and count the total together in fives each evening.
- How does Maya teach tally marks?
- Maya has the child draw and close gates of five themselves, then count completed gates before counting loose strokes, so the bundle becomes visible rather than assumed.
No card needed. The first lesson is free.
Download on the App StoreMore Math lessons
- Tens and onesGrade 2
- Skip-count by 2 and 5Grade 2
- Add up to 20Grade 2
- O'clockGrade 2
- Shekel and agorotGrade 2
- Take away to 20Grade 2
- Subtracting tensGrade 2
- Cube sphere cylinderGrade 2