Pictograms and bar charts
Reading and drawing pictograms (each picture = n items) and bar charts. Year 3-5.
Year 3 reads simple pictograms (1 picture = 1 item); Year 4-5 reads pictograms where 1 picture represents 2, 5 or 10. Bar charts (vertical or horizontal) follow the same logic with a numerical scale.
Worked examples
Pictogram: 1 = 5 cars. 4 pictures = 20 cars.
Bar chart with scale 0, 10, 20, 30: a bar at 25 means 25.
Year 4 SATs: read off a value mid-square — e.g. half a 1-picture step represents 5/2 = 2.5.
Frequently asked questions
Pictogram or bar chart — when?
Pictograms suit small whole numbers and a child audience. Bar charts work for any numerical data and allow finer scales.
Tallying still needed?
Year 3 introduces five-bar tallies (||||) for collecting data, then converts to a frequency table for the chart.