Pie charts – Year 6 maths lesson

Lesson 28 of 32 in the Year 6 maths course

UK version. UK school years, UK spelling and pounds (£). · US Math Department

A complete 45-minute lesson for Year 6 (ages 10–11) that runs on this page – at school or at home. Every answer is marked straight away, with a worked explanation.

Time: 45 minutes + 20 min homework
Year: Year 6 (ages 10–11)
You need: Paper, a pencil and this page
Marked: Instantly, with explanations

For parents: how to use this lesson

You don't need to know this topic yourself. The lesson explains each step on screen, one tidy step at a time. Every answer is marked straight away with a worked explanation, so you never have to mark anything.

Read what your child will learn and the big ideas together.
Press Start the lesson below and sit with your child for the teaching and the worked examples (about 19 minutes).
Let them do the practice on their own. They choose Getting started, On track or Challenge – start on On track and move up after a few right in a row.
Finish with the exit ticket and the talk question: “If 30 people were asked, how many does a quarter of the pie show?”
Later that day or the next day: the homework (20 minutes), then a practice test.

Watch out for

Comparing the sizes of sectors in two pie charts with different totals. A bigger sector only means more if the totals are the same.
Thinking each sector is worth the same. Use the angle or fraction of each sector.

Tip for home: Split a day into sleep, school and play and draw it as a pie chart.

What your child will learn

We are learning to read and interpret pie charts.

Success looks like

I can read fractions of a pie chart.
I can find an amount from a pie chart.
I can compare sectors.

Key words

pie chart: a circle split into sectors
sector: a slice of the pie
proportion: a part compared with the whole
total: all the data

What to have ready

Paper and a pencil
This page on a computer, tablet or phone
For the hands-on part: Fold a paper circle into halves, quarters and eighths, and colour the parts to show a family survey.

The big ideas (for the adult)

A pie chart shows how a whole is split into parts. The whole circle is all the data.

Half the circle is half the data; a right angle (a quarter turn) is a quarter.

If you know the total, find a part by working out its fraction of the circle: 90° out of 360° is a quarter.

The lesson, step by step

45 minutes in 5 parts
Part	Time	How it is checked
Starter: quick recall	5 min	Marked by Classfern
Teaching input	10 min	Not assessed, self-checked
Worked examples and guided practice	9 min	Not assessed, marked by Classfern
Independent practice	15 min	Marked by Classfern
Plenary and exit ticket	6 min	Marked by Classfern, self-checked

Starter, "your turn", practice and exit ticket are marked by Classfern. Worked examples and teaching are not assessed. The hands-on task and the reflection are self-assessed. Explanations in talk are judged by the parent and not recorded.

The lesson

It runs here on the page. No sign-up and no names – progress is kept only in this browser.

Homework and practice at home

20 minutes: 10 practice questions, 3 multiple-choice questions and 2 to remember from earlier work, then a short reflection. New questions every time, all marked instantly.

More practice

Year 6 statistics testMarked instantly

All Year 6 maths lessons and tests · Maths Department

Curriculum

National Curriculum for England, Year 6: “interpret and construct pie charts and line graphs and use these to solve problems”

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Our lessons and questions are our own. They are not written or endorsed by any government department, testing agency or exam board.