Primary 2 · Mathematics
P2 picture graphs
In P1, every picture in a graph was one person. In P2 the key can say each picture stands for 2, and "draw 8 more pupils" quietly becomes 4 more pictures.
- Level
- P2
- Usually taught
- Term 4
- Covers
- 1 concept
What changes at P2
In Primary 2 picture graphs gain a scale: the key says what each picture stands for, often 2 or 5. Your child reads a graph by multiplying the pictures by the key, and answers "how many more" and "how many fewer" between the columns.
Worksheets also ask the other way round: given a number of pupils, draw the right number of pictures. That direction divides by the key, and it is the one the P1 habit gets wrong.
The sentence that costs the mark
Each ★ stands for 2 pupils. 8 more pupils chose swimming than football. How many more ★ should swimming have?
What the working usually does
8 more pupils:8 more ★=16 more pupils
Draws one star per pupil, as every P1 graph did.
What the question asked
8 more pupils:8 ÷ 2=4 more ★
Reads the key first, then turns pupils into stars.
The 8 came straight from the question and the stars were drawn neatly. At P1 each picture was one person, so "draw 8" was right all of last year. The key changed that, and it sits in a corner of the graph.
| Row | pupils |
|---|---|
| Football | 6 |
| Swimming | 14 |
| Badminton | 10 |
The same question, worked properly
Read the key first
1 ★ = 2 pupilsBefore counting or drawing anything, find what one picture stands for.
Turn the pupils into pictures
8 ÷ 2 = 4 more ★This is the step that fails. Each star is 2 pupils, so 8 more pupils need only 4 more stars. Drawing 8 stars adds 16 pupils, which is the P1 habit at work.
Draw them on
3 + 4 = 7 ★Football has 3 stars, which is 6 pupils. Swimming gets 7 stars, which is 14 pupils: 8 more, as the question said.
How can you tell it has clicked?
Point at a column of 4 pictures with a key of 2 and ask how many pupils it shows. An answer of 4 means the key was skipped. An answer of 8 means it was read.
Then ask your child to draw 6 more pupils on the same graph. Three pictures is right. Six pictures is the P1 habit coming back.
One thing to try tonight
Make a picture graph of the family's shoes where each drawing stands for 2 shoes, one pair.
Ask your child to add a new pair of shoes to the graph. One drawing, not two, is the whole lesson.
What your child will meet in this topic
- Picture Graphs
Most Singapore schools introduce this in Term 4, though schools do differ by a term either way. If your child’s school runs a different order, you can set it in the schedule on your dashboard.
What it leads to
P3 moves to bar graphs, where the scale sits on an axis instead of in a key, and one gridline can stand for 5.
The key-first habit returns in P4 tables and line graphs, where the first question is always what one mark stands for.
The same topic in other years
It comes back each year and gets harder, so it helps to see what came before and what is coming.
More in Primary 2
Other topics in the same year, so you can see what sits either side of this one.
See how your child is doing on this topic
StudyLah marks each step separately, so you can see whether it was the setup or the arithmetic that cost the mark.