This week Year 6 have been learning how to calculate perimeter, area and volume of various 2D and 3D shapes. During this lesson we combined the maths with some Geography! First the children were quizzed on the names of the seven continents and this resulted in some debate as to what a continent was and which areas of the world could be classed as a continent. The children learnt that, depending on where you were, the continents could change slightly but in general the world agreed on the same 7 names.
Children were then asked how they could estimate the area of each continent when provided with only the outlines and squared paper. We discussed different methods and also the fact that we would need a scale in order to be able to complete the calculations. The children then outlined the different areas of the world and, by counting the squares, were able to estimate the areas in square miles.
