Maths · Decoding a pictogram key
Pictogram Reader
Tap the Adventure row. Then use the key to say how many books it stands for.
Free to use and free to share. There is no sign-up, no score, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. What you may do with it, in full.
Loading the interactive exercise. Nothing you do here is saved or scored.
Why this works
The Adventure row draws 2 and a half pictures, and the key says each whole picture stands for 2, so the row stands for 5. Counting the pictures and stopping gives 2, which is the answer to a different question: a pictogram is drawn small on purpose, and the key is what turns what you can count into what it means. A part picture is worth part of the key, not a whole one.
Helping a child through Pictogram Reader
It runs in 2 steps
- 1. Find it. Tap the row the question names.
- 2. Read it. Now use the key to choose how many books that is.
Hints, least revealing first
- Find the bar, row or slice the question names before you read anything. Getting the label right matters as much as the reading.
- The scale does not always count up in single steps. Work out what a single line is worth before you read anything off it.
- Keep your finger level as you slide from the board across to the scale. Drifting up or down by a line is the commonest slip there is.
When they finish it: “The key did the work.”
What usually goes wrong here
- Counts symbols without multiplying by the key.
This is the wrong answer 11+ papers are built to offer, so it is worth watching for directly: a child who does this will look confident and still lose the mark. If it keeps happening on decode a pictogram key, the fix is the misunderstanding rather than more questions.
11+ skill this exercise practises
It has its own page, with a worked example and the mistake that skill attracts.
All maths 11+ skillsYou can reuse this. Here is exactly how far that goes
Tutors, teachers and editors keep asking, so this is the answer in writing rather than by email. You do not need to ask permission, and you do not need to tell us.
- Embed it
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- Use it in class
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- Put it in something you charge for
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- Quote it, rewrite it, translate it, cut it up, or build something different on top of it. Treat the wording, the worked examples and the question ideas as yours to work with.
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Embed this exercise
Paste this into your own page and the exercise runs there, playable, for your readers or your students. It is 900 pixels tall by default and as wide as the column you put it in; change the height if your layout wants a different one.
The embedded copy has no header, no footer and no sign-up prompt. It records nothing about the child using it, on your page just as on ours.
Pictogram Reader practises one skill. Maths has 55 of them
A free diagnostic covers every maths skill and the other three subjects, and comes back with a shortlist rather than a list.