Second Grade · Math · week 28

Picture graphs

Read and build a picture graph, where each picture may represent more than one item.

A picture graph uses little pictures to show how many of something there are. Sometimes one picture stands for just one item, but sometimes one picture stands for a group, like 2 or 5.

Before reading any picture graph, check the key first -- it tells you exactly what one picture is worth.

📋 For the teacher
Teach it (10–15 min):
  • Always read the key together, out loud, before touching any row of the graph -- make it an automatic first step.
  • Build a real picture graph at home about something countable: cars passing by, weather each day, or favorite fruits in the house.
  • Practice graphs where the key equals 2 or 5, since a key of exactly 1 is the easy case; those are the ones needing real thinking.
  • Have them explain out loud how they turned "number of pictures" into "number of items" using the key.
Talk about it:
  • What is the first thing you should look at on any picture graph?
  • If one picture stands for 5 items and a row has 3 pictures, how many items is that?
  • What could we track on our own picture graph this week?

Mastery looks like: They read a picture graph with a key greater than 1 and build a simple picture graph of their own data.

Common stumbles: Ignoring the key and counting each picture as exactly one; miscounting the pictures in a row.

Homework for this lessonType it, write it with a stylus, or print it for pencil & paper.open →
Records attendance + 15 min of Math for this learner.
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