Chapter 14 — Data Handling

Chapter 14 of the Class 4 Mathematics NCERT textbook (Maths Mela), "Data Handling", introduces young learners to collecting, organising, and reading data through real-life activities like favourite-subject surveys, colourful ice gola tallies, and a Bal Mela pictograph. Students learn to frame good questions, record responses systematically, fill tables, and compare ways of displaying information. Download the PDF and read the summary and Q&A below to prepare with confidence.

• Collecting Data with a Good Question — The chapter opens with Rohan and Anjali wanting to find which subject classmates like most. Students compare two question designs — one asking 'Which subjects do you like?' and another asking 'Which subject do you like the most?' — and learn that a well-framed, single-answer question gives cleaner, more useful data. This teaches the importance of question design before any data collection begins.
• Organising Responses into a Table — Anjali records 45 children's subject preferences using abbreviations (M, L, T, A, P.E.). Students count how many children chose each subject and enter the totals in a table. They then identify the most and least popular subjects, experiencing first-hand how a table makes a large set of raw responses far easier to read and compare.
• Comparing Ways of Displaying Data — The chapter directly contrasts showing data as a raw list of letters versus organising it in a table, and asks students which format is easier to understand and why. This comparison builds early critical thinking about data representation and lays the groundwork for understanding pictographs and other display formats introduced later.
• Reading and Completing a Pictograph — In the Bal Mela activity, Rohan and Anjali use a pictograph to record fruit chaats and sandwiches sold over three days. Students complete a table from the pictograph, identify the day with highest sandwich sales, compare items sold on Day 2, and calculate total daily sales — practising how to extract and interpret information from a visual data display.

1. 01Students learn to frame a clear single-answer question before collecting data from classmates
2. 0245 children's subject preferences (Maths, Languages, The World Around Us, Arts, Physical Education) are recorded using abbreviations and counted
3. 03Children fill in a frequency table and identify the most and least popular subject from the data
4. 04The chapter compares a raw list of responses with an organised table to show why tables are easier to read
5. 05The Colourful Golas activity has students record ice gola colours eaten and compare which colour boys and girls ate most
6. 06The Chess or Cricket activity builds a two-column table (Girls/Boys) for four categories: only chess, only cricket, both, neither
7. 07The Bal Mela pictograph activity tracks fruit chaats and sandwiches sold over three days, with students completing tables and answering comparison questions
8. 08Chapter 14 is part of the 2026-27 reprint of Maths Mela, the Class 4 NCERT Mathematics textbook