Scaled Picture Graphs

"What is that?" "I don't know; it's not the honey." "Hmm, you know, might be our laundry. It's probably time to change into a new set of clothes anyway." "I can't believe it all fit, but how will we sort it all?!" "We could make a scaled picture graph to help us organize our clean clothes." Drawing a Scaled Picture Graph A picture graph is a chart that uses pictures to represent and sort information into categories that's why it is called a picture graph! In a scaled picture graph, the value of one picture represents more than one item so we can see a lot of information at once. To start our first picture graph, we'll need to find all of Nari's clean clothes in that pile. This is called our data set! Next, we need to give this graph a name. Since the data set includes all of Nari's clean laundry, let's call it, "Nari's Clothes" Next, we sort and count Nari's clothes into categories like shirts, pants, and pajamas. These three categories let us know we need to draw three rows in our graph. Now, we'll make a key for our picture graph using a hanger to represent our clothing items. Remember, we are making a scaled picture graph so one hanger represents more than one piece of clothing. Let's add a key at the bottom of the graph to tell readers that each hanger will represent two pieces of clothing because most of the data can be made counting by twos. We can also say they are multiples of two. Finally, it's time to fill in our picture graph! Remember, each hanger represents two pieces of clothing and Nari has six shirts. Let's skip count together by twos: two, four, six. So, we'll need to put three hangers in the shirts row because two goes into six, three times. Let's do the same thing for his pants! How many times does two go into four? Two goes into four two times so that means we will need two hangers in the pants row. Let's be careful with our three pajamas though because two does NOT go evenly into three. One hanger represents two pajamas so we can use half a hanger to represent the one left over. Now that Nari's scaled picture graph is complete, we should help Gus! Our new data set is all of Gus's clean clothes. What should we title this graph? "Gus's Clothes" since it's their clean laundry. Next, we sort and count Gus's clothes into shirts, pants, and pajamas. Then, we draw the chart for our graph and add our labels. This time let's pick a clothespin to represent our clothing items. Remember, we are making a scaled picture graph so one clothespin represents more than one piece of clothing. Gus has six shirts, nine pants and three pajamas so how many items could one clothespin represent? All of those numbers are multiples of three, so one clothespin will represent three pieces of clothing. Now we're ready to fill in his graph! Now let's repeat this for the rest. Gus has nine pants and three goes into nine three times, we will need three clothespins next to the pants label. How many clothespins will we need for Gus's three pajamas? We will use one clothespin because one clothespin represents three items of clothing. Look! All their clothes are sorted and organized, but before we see what Nari and Gus put on let's remember! When drawing a scaled picture graph, first identify and name your data set. Then, sort your data into categories and draw your chart. Next, define your scaled symbols by looking for common multiples and note it with a key. Finally, plot your data into the graph according to your key. "Great work today, Gus; let's put on our fresh, clean clothes!" "Ahhhhh! So comfy!" "I don’t know, Nari… feels a bit tight."