Handling Data - Pictograms

Pictograms are a way of displaying data from a frequency table, graphically.

A favourite exercise is to create a pictogram from a tube of Smarties.

How many of each colour are in a tube of Smarties?

There are 8 colours, so we need 8 rows, each smartie symbol represents 2 smarties.

Notice that each smartie symbol on the pictogram represents 2 smarties (and half a smartie indicates 1 smartie). Symbols often represent different values.

Always look for the 'Key' which tells us what value the symbols represent.

Again, ask questions to get your child to interpret and analyse the data.

Which is the colour with the highest frequency?
What is the colour with the lowest frequency?
How many more reds are there than blue?
How many in total?

Perhaps repeat the experiment and see if the total remains the same
and if the frequency of different colours varies.

Best of all you get to eat them afterwards!