The purpose of this activity is for students to read a scaled picture graph. A scale of 5 is used to encourage skip-counting because students skip-counted by 5 in grade 2. The questions in the task focus on the structure of a scaled picture graph and the strategies students can use to read them.

• “In a graph where there’s a lot of data, we can adjust the scale so each picture represents more than 1 object. When each picture represents something other than 1, we say that it’s a scaled picture graph. The key tells us that in this graph, each smiley face represents 5 students.”

The purpose of this activity is for students to interpret a scaled picture graph and write questions that can be asked based on the data represented in a scaled picture graph.

• Invite students to share responses to the questions they answered and explain their reasoning.
• Consider asking:
  • “How did you use the key to answer the questions?” (I counted by the number that each picture represents—by 5 for the flowers and by 2 for the students.)
• Share a variety of student written questions.
• Consider asking:
  • “How did you know your question could be answered with the graph?” (The data needed to answer the question is shown in the graph.)
  • If time allows, ask, “What questions cannot be answered by this graph?” (How many students' favorite type of book is graphic novels?)