Fall customer survey: a 30-minute tally activity for grades 3–5
What it is: before deciding what to make for a fall craft fair (real or pretend), students write a survey question, collect tallies from other students and staff, and use the data to choose. It's a survey activity for grades 3–5 that links tally charts and bar graphs to a business habit: ask your customers first.
Time: about 30 minutes in class, plus a recess or lunch to collect answers.
Materials: notebooks or clipboards, pencils, chart paper or the board for the class graph.
- Set up the problem: "We want to make something for a fall craft fair. How can we find out what people will buy?" Compare guessing with asking.
- Write the survey question together. Start with a weak one: "Do you like crafts?" Then improve it: "Which would you most like to buy: a bookmark, a greeting card, a painted rock or a friendship bracelet?" Rules: one question, three or four clear choices, each person answers once.
- Pairs survey at least 10 people, such as classmates, another class or staff in the office. They tally in groups of five.
- Pairs report their tallies, and the class combines them into one big tally chart, then a bar graph with a title and labels.
- Read the data: "Which choice was most popular? How many more people chose bracelets than rocks? About what fraction chose cards?"
- Decide: "What should we make the most of? The fewest?" Add a second factor: time and cost to make. The most popular item isn't always the best choice if it takes an hour each.
- Reflect: "Who did we ask? Would kindergartners and adults answer the same way?" Name the idea: the people you ask are your sample, and it matters who's in it.
No fair planned? Run it anyway and decide for a pretend one. The data skills are the same.
Differentiation: for students who need more support, use three choices with a picture for each and survey five people. For advanced students, survey two groups (younger students and adults) and compare the results in one double bar graph. For English learners, practice the survey question aloud with a partner first and post a script on the board: "Excuse me, can I ask you one question?" For students who find approaching people hard, let them be the pair's recorder, or survey by holding up picture choices.
Quick check: show this tally: bookmarks 12, cards 7, rocks 4, bracelets 9. Ask: "What should the class make the most of, and how many more chose bookmarks than bracelets?" (Bookmarks; 3 more.)
If you try it, tell us what your class's customers picked and whether it surprised the students.
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About this resource
- Shared by
- @UpOnlyLearning · Curriculum team
- Posted
- Oct 28, 2026
- Type
- Lesson plan
- Grade
- Grades 3–5
- Subject
- Business
- Language
- English
- License
- Free for classroom, co-op and tutoring use. Please don't resell.