- Definition
Frequency is simply how often something happens or how many times you see a particular item.
If you have 3 red blocks and 5 blue blocks, the frequency of red blocks is 3.
How to teach this in 30 seconds
Try this analogy: Frequency is like counting how many red, blue, and green candies you have in your snack.
Ask your child: Let's count how many of each colour of block we have.
Common mix-up: Kids may think frequency is just naming the different types of things. Frequency is the actual count of how many times each type appears.
Examples
- Counting the frequency of sunny days this week means counting how many days were sunny.
- Asking classmates their favourite snack and counting the votes for each one shows the frequency of each choice.
frequency is a term used in Ontario’s Kindergarten to Grade 8 curriculum.
Where this shows up
- Grade 1 Mathematics
- Grade 3 Mathematics
- Grade 4 Mathematics
- Grade 5 Mathematics
- Grade 7 Health and Physical Education
+1 more mention across the curriculum
The descriptions on this page are SmartStudy’s own original, plain-language writing — not the Ministry’s wording. They are aligned to the Ontario Curriculum, © King’s Printer for Ontario. For the Ministry’s official wording, see the source link below. SmartStudy is an independent service and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Government of Ontario or the Ministry of Education. Ontario Curriculum and Resources ↗
