Pictograms: Reading and Answering Questions

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1 Getting Started
2 Watch and Notice
3 Try It Together
4 Answer in Your Copy
5 Class Challenge
6 What Did We Notice?
7 What's Next
Pupil practice

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

Illustration for Getting Started Here is a pictogram showing how the children in one class got to school. Each little picture stands for one child.

Have a good look: which way did most children travel? Can you tell just by glancing, before we count anything?

Teacher Notes

Take two or three hands-up answers, not open call-outs. Push for how they knew: the answer is the longest row, not a guess.

Don't count exact numbers yet — that is the next step. Here we just want pupils noticing that a longer row means more.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

This pictogram shows how our class got to school — each icon stands for one child. We will read it four ways: the most, the least, how many more walked than cycled, and how many altogether. Have a quiet guess and put a hand up before each one.

Teacher Notes

Display snapshot — point at rows, don't drag. Run the four beats separately, taking two hands-up predictions before each reveal so the back stays with you.

Most: trace the longest row — Car, 12, the most common way.

Least: trace the shortest row — Cycle, 3.

How many more walked than cycled: finger under Walk (8) and Cycle (3) together, count the icons sticking out past cycle — 5. This is the make-or-break idea; don't rush it.

Total: count every icon across all four rows — 8 + 3 + 5 + 12 = 28.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Try It Together ~9 mins

Now we read a new pictogram together. It shows the pets the class have at home, one icon for each pet.

We will answer these in order: which pet is the most, which is the least, how many more have a dog than a fish, and how many pets altogether. When a classmate is at the board, everyone else says the answer together before we check it.

Pets in our class

Teacher Notes

This is a Try Together round: we work through it as a class on the board, thinking aloud together, with pupils taking turns to answer at the board and the class agreeing each answer.

Load the pets pictogram and ask one reading question at a time. Pupils take turns at the board, and the class agrees or corrects out loud before each check. A pupil comes up and traces the row they are counting so the class can follow the finger.

For how many more, insist the pupil lines the two rows up and counts the extra icons — not two separate counts subtracted in their head.
Watch for the pupil who names the shortest row as the total — revoice: the total is every row added, not one row.

+15 XP

4 - Answer in Your Copy ~3 mins

COPYBOOK MOMENT

Answer these three questions about the pets pictogram in your maths copy. Write the total as a number.

Which group is the most?
Which group is the least?
How many are there altogether?

Teacher Notes

Walk the room glancing at the answers — this is whole-class copybook practice, not marking. The most and least answers should be group names; only the total is a number. Watch for pupils who write a category name for the total instead of a number.

+10 XP

5 - Class Challenge ~10 mins

Today we work through these readings together on the board. First we find the most, then the least, then how many more the first row has than the second row, and finally the total of every row. We build one pictogram at a time, so the one being built is the one we are working on. Each pictogram gets a little harder — the last one has a total to add across four rows.

Read the pictogram

Teacher Notes

This is the Class Challenge: pupils take turns answering at the board while the whole class checks each answer together before we move on.

Pupils take turns at the board, check each answer, and the class confirms before moving on. Keep the board work brisk rather than over-explaining.

The practice set builds up in difficulty. The first pictogram has a clear longest row. The second is a closer pair for how many more. The last is a full four-row total.
For the how-many-more challenges, hold out for the finger-under-two-rows method, not head arithmetic.
On the final total, have the class add the rows aloud one at a time so nobody drops a row.

+15 XP

Pupil practice

Module 9 · Data and Chance Mixed

Lesson 96 · Pictograms: Reading and Answering Questions

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Teacher Class Feed

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

3 - Try It Together ~9 mins

Pets in our class

4 - Answer in Your Copy ~3 mins

5 - Class Challenge ~10 mins

Read the pictogram

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