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?

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.

To find how many more walked than cycled, we do not count each row on its own. We line the walk row and the cycle row up together and count the extra icons sticking out past the end of the cycle row. Those extra icons are the 'how many more'.

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. For the how many more question, remember to line the dog row and the fish row up and count the extra icons sticking out — do not count each row on its own. When a classmate is at the board, everyone else says the answer together before we check it.

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.

When we work out how many more the first row has than the second, we line the two rows up and count the icons sticking out past the shorter row — we do not count each row on its own. The icons that hang past the shorter row are the 'how many more'.