Reading the Story in a Line Graph

Imagine you are tracking how tall your sunflower grows every week. You measure it on Monday, write the number down, then do it again next Monday. After a few weeks you have a list of numbers. Now imagine drawing a dot for each number and joining all the dots with a line. That joined-up line is called a line graph — and it lets you see change over time at a glance! Before we dive in, think about this question below.

A line graph has two axes — two straight lines that form an 'L' shape. The horizontal axis (going left to right) usually shows time, like hours or days. The vertical axis (going up and down) shows the thing being measured, like temperature in degrees Celsius (°C). Each dot on the graph is called a data point. It marks one measurement at one moment in time. The dots are joined by straight lines so you can see what happened between measurements. **Reading a value:** Pick any dot. Trace your finger left to the vertical axis — that tells you the amount. Then trace your finger down to the horizontal axis — that tells you the time. **Spotting trends:** A trend is the overall direction the line travels. • Line going UP → the value is increasing (getting bigger). • Line going DOWN → the value is decreasing (getting smaller). • Line staying FLAT → the value is staying the same. Look at our worked example below to see how this works with real numbers.