Unit 2 · Signs, Symbols and Secret Codes

Sam draws a red heart on a card for his mom. The heart does not say any words. But Mom knows what it means. It means "I love you."

A symbol is a picture that stands for an idea. A heart stands for love. A smiley face stands for happy. A star can stand for a great job.

You see symbols every day. You see them on doors, on boxes, and on screens. When you know the idea, you can read the picture.

Lee rides in the car with his dad. They come to a red sign with eight sides. Dad stops the car. The sign did not need to say a lot. Its shape and color told Dad what to do.

A sign is a board that gives a message. A stop sign is red. It has eight sides. No other road sign has that shape. So drivers know it fast, even from far away.

A yield sign has three sides. It means slow down and let others go first. A school sign has five sides. It means children may be near.

Ostia is an old town in Italy, near the sea. Long ago, a group met there. That was more than 1,700 years ago. They put a picture floor in their hallway. It is made of tiny stones.

The floor has seven pictures in a row, like a ladder. Each picture is one step. New members started on the first step. They could climb higher over time.

The first step was called the Raven. A raven is a big black bird. The top step was called the Father. The floor shows the whole ladder with no words needed.

Pat builds a birdhouse. She uses a square to make each corner just right. The square is shaped like a big letter L.

She uses a compass to draw a perfect circle for the door. A compass has two legs. One leg stays still. The other leg turns around it.

Long ago, stone builders used these same tools. A club called the Freemasons began with builders. Today Freemasons still use the square and compass as their symbol.

Jin looks at his school door. Above it, carved in stone, is an open book. The book tells people that this is a place to learn.

Old buildings often have carvings. A carving is a picture cut into stone or wood. Some carvings show the group that built or used the building.

See a square and compass? Freemasons may have met there. You can be a symbol detective. Look up, look close, and ask what the picture says.

Rosa wears a small pin shaped like a leaf. Her friend has the same pin. They are both in the garden club. The pin shows they belong together.

A badge is a small sign you wear to show your group. Scouts wear badges. Team players wear the same colors. Long ago, many clubs had their own badges and pins.

A flag shows a group too. The flag of the United States has 50 stars and 13 stripes. Each star stands for one state. Illinois is one of those stars.

Room 12 wants a symbol. First, they talk. They love to read. They love to help. They ask, what picture could show both ideas?

Mia draws a book. Omar draws two hands. The class puts them together: two hands holding a book. Now they have a class symbol. It is their own design.

A good symbol is simple. It is easy to draw and easy to see. It shows an idea the group shares. Everyone can help make it.

Ben writes his name as 2, 5, 14. Why? B is letter 2. E is letter 5. N is letter 14. He swapped each letter for a number.

A code is a way to swap letters for shapes, numbers or other signs. The message stays the same. It just looks different. Only some people can read it.

You can make a code with numbers, colors or little pictures. Each letter gets its own sign. Then you write your message with the signs.

Lucy has a card that shows each shape and its letter. With the card, she reads Ana’s note. Leo has no card. To him, the note is just marks.

The card is called a key. A key tells you which sign goes with which letter. With the key, you can read a code. Without it, a code is very hard to read.

Keep your key safe. Share it only with the people you want to read your notes. That is how a code works in a game.

Draw a tic-tac-toe grid. Put A, B and C in the top row. Put D, E and F in the middle. Put G, H and I on the bottom. Now each letter has its own little pen.

This is the pigpen code. Each letter is the lines around it. E sits in the middle, so E is a full box. A sits in a corner, so A is just a corner shape.

Two grids and two X shapes hold all 26 letters. Some letters get a dot. The dot tells them apart. The letters sit in pens. That is why we call it pigpen!

In New York City, there is an old churchyard. It is called Trinity Churchyard. One stone there is from 1794. It has a line of little boxes, corners and dots.

Those marks are pigpen letters. They are carved into the stone. For a long time, people walked by and wondered what they said. Then people used the key and read it.

The stone also shows a square and compass. That tells us the man was a Freemason. Many Freemasons knew the pigpen code long ago.

Kim knocks on the blanket fort. "Password?" asks her brother. "Pancakes!" says Kim. He lets her in. The word shows she is part of the fort club.

A password is a secret word that lets you in. Long ago, Scotland had stone builders. They had a secret word too. A builder used it to show he was trained.

Builders also had to remember their lessons. In 1599, a leader made a rule. Each new builder must be tested on his memory. A password is something you keep in your memory.

Coach Rivera taps her head. The team knows what it means: run to the base. She does not shout. She uses a signal.

A signal is a sign that gives a message. A hand signal uses your hands. A thumbs up can mean good. A raised hand in class can mean I want to talk.

Some clubs have their own handshake. Members know it, and it shows they belong. A handshake or signal is a quiet way to share a message.

Ana and Lucy hid the cookies for a party. Soon everyone knew. That was a surprise. A surprise is a happy secret that will be shared soon.

Some secrets are not happy. A secret about someone getting hurt is unsafe. A secret about touching or danger is unsafe. So is a secret that makes you feel scared.

Codes and passwords are for fun and games. They are never for hiding something unsafe. You never have to keep an unsafe secret.

Tomas has a secret that makes his tummy feel tight. He goes to his teacher, Ms. Park. He tells her. She listens. She thanks him and helps.

A trusted grown-up is an adult who keeps you safe. It can be a parent, a teacher, a school nurse or a counselor. You can tell them anything.

Telling is brave. It is not tattling. If the first grown-up does not help, tell another one. Keep telling until someone helps.