1.MD.4: Organize and Read Data in Three Categories
Also written as 1.MD.C.4 and CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.C.4 · Cluster: Represent and interpret data.
The Official Wording
Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories; ask and answer questions about the total number of data points, how many in each category, and how many more or less are in one category than in another.
Common Core State Standards, Grade 1, Measurement & Data · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026
What 1.MD.4 Means in Plain English
First graders gather answers to a class question, like how everyone got to school, and sort them into up to three groups in a tally chart. Then they answer from the chart: how many in all, how many walked, and how many more came by bus than by car.
The questions are 1st-grade addition and subtraction in disguise: three counts added for the total (1.OA.2), two counts compared for how many more (1.OA.1). In 2nd grade the data goes up to four categories, drawn as a picture graph or bar graph (2.MD.10).
1.MD.4 I Can Statements
- I can sort answers into up to three groups.
- I can make a tally chart and count each group.
- I can tell how many more are in one group than another.
1.MD.4 Worked Example
A morning survey on the whiteboard, sorted, counted and then questioned, which is the whole standard in three moves.
Each child puts a sticky note on the whiteboard to show how they came to school today: bus, car or walk. Organize the notes, then find how many children answered and how many more came by bus than by car.
- Make three columns, one for each way to get to school, and move every sticky note into its column.Bus | Car | Walk
- Draw one line under all three columns and stack the notes up from it, one note per row, so the columns can be compared at a glance.three columns standing on the same bottom line
- Count each column and write the number underneath.Bus 9, Car 4, Walk 6
- How many children in all? Add the three columns. Car and walk make a ten first.9 + 4 + 6 = 9 + 10 = 19
- How many more came by bus than by car? Match bus notes to car notes row by row. Five bus notes have no partner.9 - 4 = 5 more
Check it: Count the sticky notes on the board once more, touching each one: 19. And 4 + 5 = 9, so 5 more than the car column lands exactly on the bus column.
Common Mistakes with 1.MD.4
Columns that do not start together
One column of notes stuck higher on the board, so the shorter column looks like it has more
Try this: Draw one baseline under all three columns, set each column’s first note on it, and stack the rest one note per row.
Naming the winner instead of the difference
“How many more came by bus?” answered with “9” or “the bus”
Try this: Pair the bus notes with the car notes one to one and ask the child to count only the notes left without a partner.
Tally marks with no bundles
Twelve votes drawn as twelve upright sticks in a row, counted as 11 one time and 13 the next
Try this: Model the fifth mark as a line across the first four, then count each bundle as 5 and count on: 5, 10, 11, 12.
Where 1.MD.4 Fits
Practice 1.MD.4
Quick Check
- A tally chart shows 6 votes for apples, 8 for bananas and 5 for grapes. How many children voted?
- Using the same chart, how many more children voted for bananas than for grapes?
- A class sorts its shoes into laces, buckles and slip-ons. Which question can the chart answer: how many have buckles, or whose shoes are newest?