A picture graph counts symbols instead of gridlines, and the key is what makes it math: five circles mean five when each stands for one, and twenty-five when each stands for five. Free printable sheets, with an answer key.
If they get stuck
The answer key prints on a separate page.
The symbol is a plain filled circle on every one of these sheets, and that is deliberate. A picture graph is counted, so the mark has to look identical every time and stay countable when it is small — a detailed character reads as several different things in a row of ten, and it ties the data to a mascot rather than to what is being measured.
Every row holds whole symbols only. Half a symbol is a real convention and a real source of quiet wrong answers on a generated sheet, so the numbers behind these graphs are always whole multiples of the key — the key can say “each stands for 5” and mean exactly that.
One question from a sheet like this one, worked a step at a time — with a sentence saying what just happened and why.
Picture graphs, step by step