Pictographs Background Information for Teachers, Parents and Caregivers
This page provides information to support educators and families in teaching K-3 students about pictographs. It is designed to complement the Pictographs topic page on BrainPOP Jr.
Help children quantify information in the world around them by teaching them how to read and understand graphs and collect, organize, and display data. This movie will explain how to read and create pictographs. It will also discuss tally charts and tally marks. You may wish to view the Tally Charts and Bar Graphs movie as extension or review.
Review with children that a pictograph is a graph that organizes and shows information using pictures. Display a pictograph and discuss it together or play the movie and pause when a pictograph is on the screen. Point out the title and labels. Explain that the key is a chart that explains what symbols or abbreviations mean. Remind children that a key might show that a picture stands for one or more than one. As a result, they should pay careful attention to information in the key and be prepared to skip-count when they analyze the data. Together with children, interpret the data in the pictograph and ask questions about it for children to answer. Be sure to have them explain how they arrived at their answers.
Guide children in creating a pictograph. You may wish to start with a survey, which is a list of questions used to collect information or opinions. You may want to conduct a survey asking about people’s favorite subjects, colors, sports, or animals. Show children how to record answers in a tally chart. Explain that we group or bundle tally marks into groups of five so they are easier to count. You may want to compare counting single tally marks and counting tally marks that are grouped into fives. Then show how to convert information from a tally chart into a pictograph. Remind children to title their pictograph, write the labels, and create the key. Ask questions about the graph and challenge children to ask each other questions about the data.
Help children understand graphs and visualize information in different ways. Why might we create pictographs and other kinds of graphs? How are they helpful? Where can you find them? Invite children to look for graphs in books, magazines, newspapers, and on the Internet. Help them understand that we have access to huge amounts of information, so we find simple ways to communicate and organize it.
Review with children that a pictograph is a graph that organizes and shows information using pictures. Display a pictograph and discuss it together or play the movie and pause when a pictograph is on the screen. Point out the title and labels. Explain that the key is a chart that explains what symbols or abbreviations mean. Remind children that a key might show that a picture stands for one or more than one. As a result, they should pay careful attention to information in the key and be prepared to skip-count when they analyze the data. Together with children, interpret the data in the pictograph and ask questions about it for children to answer. Be sure to have them explain how they arrived at their answers.
Guide children in creating a pictograph. You may wish to start with a survey, which is a list of questions used to collect information or opinions. You may want to conduct a survey asking about people's favorite subjects, colors, sports, or animals. Show children how to record answers in a tally chart. Explain that we group or bundle tally marks into groups of five so they are easier to count. You may want to compare counting single tally marks and counting tally marks that are grouped into fives. Then show how to convert information from a tally chart into a pictograph. Remind children to title their pictograph, write the labels, and create the key. Ask questions about the graph and challenge children to ask each other questions about the data.
Help children understand graphs and visualize information in different ways. Why might we create pictographs and other kinds of graphs? How are they helpful? Where can you find them? Invite children to look for graphs in books, magazines, newspapers, and on the Internet. Help them understand that we have access to huge amounts of information, so we find simple ways to communicate and organize it.
