What Is a Pictograph?

Ahmed is a second-grade student in Cairo, Egypt. There are two main seasons in Cairo, the hot season and the cool season. Ahmed asked his friends which season they like better.

Some of the students said they like the hot season while others said they like the cool season.

Wow, Ahmed! You’ve collected a lot of data. Let’s organize this data into a tally chart and a pictograph.

How many students said they like the hot season better? Yes, 14 students! We’ll need two groups of five tallies and then another 4 tallies to make 14.

How many students like the cool season better? 16 students. How many tally marks will we need? Yep! Three groups of five plus one more.

This is Ahmed’s pictograph. Here is the title and here are the labels. The title tells us that this graph is about favorite seasons. The label tells us the names of the seasons. This key says that each square represents 2 students.

If 14 students like the hot season, how many squares should Ahmed put on the graph? Yes! 7 squares.

16 students like the cool season. How many squares will we need for 16 students? You’re right! 8 squares.

Ahmed’s pictograph is complete! Let’s use this graph to compare the data. How many students like the cool season more than the hot season? We can find out by subtracting 16 minus 14. 16 minus 14 equals 2, so 2 students like the cool season more than the hot season.

How many students did Ahmed question altogether? We can find out by adding 16 plus 14. 16 plus 14 equals 30, so Ahmed questioned 30 students in total.

Thanks for helping Ahmed make and understand his pictograph!