Maths outside the classroom!

Monday 8th February 2016

What a week and what an activity! 

This week the children learned all about direction, angles and perimeter. The week was divided into practical hands on maths and independent activities in the classroom. 
The first lesson of the week was for the children to learn about direction and to be able to use the term clockwise and anti-clockwise. Rather than complete this task using paper and a pen, I decided to take the whole class to the Sports Hall to play a game called 'Minefield'. Small pieces of gold (tennis balls) are to be placed in the centre of the hall. Around the edge of the Sports Hall there should be a large circle of small cones, which are to be used as a starting point for the game. Between the cones and the gold the teacher should place any objects, sport equipment that they can get their hands on. This space needs to be as full as possible. Children are then placed in pairs with one blindfold between them. Child A wears the blindfold and Child B has to guide their partner to the gold without touching any of the mines. If a mine is touched they swap over and start again. The children must guide each other using the appropriate vocabulary. E.g. Two steps forwards, one quarter turn clockwise etc. The children absolutely loved the game and wanted to play for longer...

Later in the week we learned about right angles and rather than just learn about right angles in a book, we once again took our learning around the rest of the school. Children were placed in partners and were given an iPad. The children had to move around the school and find right angles on everyday objects and if they found one they should take a picture. They then choose their favourite images and completed a table. On return to the classroom, the children linked their Ipad to the Apple TV and the rest of the class could compare what they had found. 

One of the final lessons of the week was to learn about perimeter. This was yet another lesson which we took out of the classroom setting. The children used trundle wheel, metre sticks and tape measures to find the perimeter of many areas of the school. This included the canteen, playground, library and even the Headteacher's office! 



The whole week was a tremendous success and once again it demonstrates how easily lessons can be adapted and taught using a real life contexts. My EAL, SEN and lower ability children made a huge amount of progress this week. I will continue to develop new strategies and ideas each week. Keep reading my blog for new suggestions, tips and resources. 

All of my resources can be found on the TES teacher resources website:

https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/boltoncharlie

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Enjoy!