Children in a Class 6 group chose their favourite fruit and the votes were recorded as tally marks. How many children were surveyed in all?

When you are counting items as you go (e.g. asking 30 classmates their favourite colour), make a tally mark for each answer. To make groups easy to count, the **fifth** mark crosses the previous four: ||||̸. Every group of five jumps out at a glance, and the total is just (groups × 5) + leftovers.