Rules for Creating a Bar Graph

Pet Popularity

Type of Pet	Number of Pets
Parakeet	9
Dog	22
Cat	53
Hamster	7

Steps in the Process

1. Decide on a title for your graph (Pet Popularity).
2. Draw the vertical and horizontal axes.
3. Label the horizontal axes (Type of Pet). (x)
4. Write the names of pets where the bars will be (Parakeet, Dog, and so on).
5. Label the vertical axes (Number of Students). (y)
6. Decide on the scale. Explain that you should consider the least and the greatest number shown on the graph. Discuss what range of numbers should be shown on this bar graph (Begin at 0 and count by 5s to 25).
7. Draw a bar to show the total for each item.