30/03/22, 20:16 Elephango Educational Resources K12 Learning, Lesson Plans, Activities, Experiments, Homeschool Help

Pictographs
Contributor: Alison Weiss. Resource ID: 10629

Graphs can be a great way to convey data, but they can be boring too. Learn how to read and
create graphs using pictures. You'll complete an online activity before completing your own
pictograph.

CATEGORIES SUBJECT
Measurement and Data Math
LEARNING STYLE PERSONALITY STYLE

Auditory, Visual Lion

GRADE LEVEL RESOURCE TYPE

Intermediate (3-5) Quick Query

Get It!

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30/03/22, 20:16 Elephango Educational Resources K12 Learning, Lesson Plans, Activities, Experiments, Homeschool Help

These graphics pictured above are all different ways of organizing and presenting data. They are
organized and effective, but some might say they are a little boring.

Can you think of a graph that might be more fun?

Imagine you and your friends are outside counting clouds in the sky. Each of you keeps track of
the number of clouds you see. You want to go inside and share the number of clouds you and
your friends counted with your family.

How can you share this information?

You can make a graph!

There are all kinds of graphs we use to display data: bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts,
histograms, area graphs, scatter plots, and many more!

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30/03/22, 20:16 Elephango Educational Resources K12 Learning, Lesson Plans, Activities, Experiments, Homeschool Help

In this lesson, you are going to learn about one of the more fun and interesting graphs -
pictographs!

Before you display your data on a graph, you need to collect and organize the data:

Number of
Friend's Name
Clouds Counted
You 5
Ailee 3
Joey 1
Mikayla 7
Joshua 4

Now you are ready to make your pictograph!

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30/03/22, 20:16 Elephango Educational Resources K12 Learning, Lesson Plans, Activities, Experiments, Homeschool Help

A pictograph is unique because it uses pictures to display your data. Let's choose a picture to
represent your data. Since you counted clouds, you should use pictures of clouds on your
pictograph:

Before you can add your cloud pictures to your pictograph, you need to make the x-axis and y-
axis. These labels will help you sort the data:

On the bottom, or the x-axis, will be your friends' names. On the left-hand side, or the y-axis,
will be where you show how many clouds each friend counted in the sky.

Next, you will place the cloud pictures on the pictograph! Remember, each cloud picture
represents one cloud counted in the sky! According to the data, you counted 5 clouds:

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30/03/22, 20:16 Elephango Educational Resources K12 Learning, Lesson Plans, Activities, Experiments, Homeschool Help

Now, you can fill in the rest of the pictograph:

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30/03/22, 20:16 Elephango Educational Resources K12 Learning, Lesson Plans, Activities, Experiments, Homeschool Help

Great! It's important to use graphs to show our data because it makes it easier to then interpret
the data.

For example, looking at the pictograph, can you quickly figure out who counted the most
clouds in the sky?

Yes! It is easy to see Mikayla saw the most clouds.

What about the least amount of clouds counted?

That's Joey!

See how graphs, and especially pictographs, make it fun to display data and interpret data!

Head over to the Got It? section to practice more with using pictographs!

Got It?
You know what a pictograph is, how to make a pictograph, and even how to interpret one!

Now all you need is some more practice with pictographs. Get ready to show off your skills!

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30/03/22, 20:16 Elephango Educational Resources K12 Learning, Lesson Plans, Activities, Experiments, Homeschool Help

Use the pictograph below to answer the following questions:

Pictographs can also be made in different forms.

So far, we've looked at pictographs where the pictures are on a graph with an x- and y-axis.

Pictographs can also be table formats. Let's practice with those forms of pictographs!

Use the pictograph below to answer the following questions:

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30/03/22, 20:16 Elephango Educational Resources K12 Learning, Lesson Plans, Activities, Experiments, Homeschool Help

Good Job!

Now you are ready to visit the Go! section to create your own pictographs!

Go!
You have had practice interpreting data in a pictograph, so now you need some experience
making a pictograph on your own.

Activity 1

Supplies:

paper
pencil
markers or colored pencils

Directions:

Use what you have learned about pictographs to turn the bar graph pictured below into a
pictograph.
Start by interpreting the data in the bar graph, and then recreate it in the form of a
pictograph.
Have fun and be creative!

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30/03/22, 20:16 Elephango Educational Resources K12 Learning, Lesson Plans, Activities, Experiments, Homeschool Help

Activity 2

Supplies:

paper
pencil

Directions:

Gather information to create your own pictograph.

Collect data on something you are interested in. Perhaps you'd like to know what
your friends favorite candy bars are?
When you have gathered your data, design your own pictograph.
You could draw one on paper or use your favorite computer program.
When you are done with your pictograph, share it with the people who gave you the data.
Have fun!

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