Reading and interpreting line graphs showing change over time, reading values between plotted points.
Where your child meets this in real life: Understanding temperature changes, tracking progress over time, or financial trends
SEAGReady breaks read line graphs into 3 steps, taught in order so each skill builds on the last.
Read the value at plotted points on a line graph by finding coordinates
Estimate or read values at positions between plotted data points (interpolation)
Describe and compare rates of change, identifying where change is fastest or slowest
Three free sample questions from our read line graphs course. Every question comes with a full explanation, and hints that guide without giving the answer away.
Ciara recorded the temperature in her garden every hour. The line graph shows her results. What was the temperature at 10am?
Answer: A. 16°C
Find 10am on the horizontal axis. Go straight up to the point on the line. Look across to the vertical axis. The point is level with 16 on the temperature scale. The temperature at 10am was 16°C.
Stuck? Start here: Find 10am on the horizontal axis (the bottom of the graph).
Sean tracked his bike ride distance. The line graph shows he had cycled 4 km at 20 minutes and 6 km at 30 minutes. Approximately how far had he cycled after 25 minutes?
Answer: A. 5 km
25 minutes is halfway between 20 and 30 minutes. At 20 min: 4 km. At 30 min: 6 km. Halfway between 4 and 6: (4 + 6) / 2 = 5 km. After 25 minutes, Sean had cycled approximately 5 km.
Stuck? Start here: 25 minutes is halfway between 20 and 30 minutes.
Declan measured the water level in a paddling pool. The line graph shows it fell from 30 cm to 25 cm between 2pm and 3pm, and from 20 cm to 10 cm between 4pm and 5pm. Between which two times did the water fall fastest?
Answer: A. 4pm to 5pm
2pm to 3pm: 30 - 25 = 5 cm fall. 4pm to 5pm: 20 - 10 = 10 cm fall. 10 cm is a bigger fall than 5 cm. The water fell fastest between 4pm and 5pm.
Stuck? Start here: Calculate how much the water fell during each time period.
This is the exact interactive worked example your child sees in SEAGReady. Step through it and watch the method build up.
Aoife recorded the temperature in her garden every hour during the school day. She made a line graph of her results.
What was the temperature at 11am?
Step 1 of 4
Aoife recorded the temperature in her garden every hour during the school day. She made a line graph of her results.
What was the temperature at 11am?
The temperature at 11am was 14°C.
The key insight: Reading a line graph is like finding coordinates - go along, then up!
Watch out: Reading 11 instead of 14 by mixing up the axes. The horizontal axis shows TIME, the vertical axis shows TEMPERATURE. Read the value from the vertical axis.
These are the misconceptions we see most often in read line graphs, including the ones our practice questions are specifically designed to catch.
Struggling with read line graphs? The real gap is often in one of these earlier topics.
SEAGReady finds the exact step where your child gets stuck, teaches it with worked examples like the one above, and brings it back for review so it sticks.