Graphs made of pictures
A pictograph shows data using pictures, or symbols. It’s a fun, quick way to compare categories.
Title: Favourite Fruit in Room 4
| Fruit | Votes |
|---|---|
| Apple | 🍎 🍎 🍎 🍎 🍎 |
| Banana | 🍎 🍎 🍎 |
| Grapes | 🍎 🍎 🍎 🍎 |
| Orange | 🍎 🍎 |
Key: 🍎 = 1 vote
Parts of a pictograph
| Part | Job |
|---|---|
| Title | Tells what the graph is about |
| Categories | The groups being compared |
| Symbols | Pictures that show the amounts |
| Key | Tells how much one symbol stands for |
Always read the key first!
When one symbol stands for more than one
If lots of data is collected, drawing one picture per vote takes a long time. So a symbol can stand for 2, 5 or 10.
Key: ⭐ = 2 children
| Sport | Children |
|---|---|
| Soccer | ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ |
| Hockey | ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ |
| Swimming | ⭐ ⭐ and a half ⭐ |
- Soccer: 4 stars × 2 = 8 children
- Hockey: 3 × 2 = 6 children
- Swimming: 2 stars = 4, plus a half symbol = 1 more, so 5 children
Making a pictograph
- Collect and count your data.
- Choose a simple symbol.
- Decide what each symbol stands for and write the key.
- Draw the right number of symbols in each row. Line them up neatly so rows are easy to compare.
- Add a title and labels.
Worked examples
Example 1: In the fruit pictograph (🍎 = 1 vote), how many chose grapes?
4.
Example 2: In the sports pictograph (⭐ = 2), how many more chose soccer than hockey?
8 − 6 = 2.
Example 3: If ⭐ = 5 books, how many books do 3 stars show?
5 + 5 + 5 = 15.
Common mistakes
- Ignoring the key and counting each symbol as 1.
- Drawing symbols of different sizes, which makes rows hard to compare.
- Forgetting the half symbol when the amount is odd.
Try it yourself
Key: ● = 2 cars
| Colour | Cars |
|---|---|
| Red | ● ● ● |
| Blue | ● ● ● ● ● |
| White | ● and a half ● |
- How many red cars?
- How many blue cars?
- How many white cars?
- How many cars altogether?
Answers: 1) 6 2) 10 3) 3 4) 19
Quick recap
- A pictograph uses symbols to show data.
- The key tells what each symbol is worth.
- Give it a title and line symbols up neatly.