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Outdoor Maths
Objectives
To learn to use the outdoors to develop mathematical thinking.
Resources
Abacus Workbook 1 | Hit the Button (TopMarks) | Outdoor space | Tape measure, roughly 1m in length, with marked centimetres
Vocabulary
estimate | measure | centimetres (cm) | length
Today's Lesson
Introduction
Access the Topmarks website.
EXPLORE - Hit the Button (TopMarks)
Ask your student to select ‘Number Bonds’. They should then select ‘Make 20’.
The challenge is to click on the number that pairs with the given number, in order to make a total of 20.
Challenge your student to play for the 60 seconds, then to play again, aiming to beat their score!
Repeat as necessary, in order to improve speed and accuracy.
Main Activity
Explain to your student that the next four lessons will take place outside. Tell them that there is lots to be learnt as a mathematician, and we don’t need to do it all indoors!
Tell them that today’s lesson is about estimating and measuring.
Say: ‘It is so useful to be able to estimate the length or size of something, so that when we haven’t got any measuring equipment, we still have the skills to make a sensible guess.’
Tell them that estimating is about making a sensible guess.
Explore outside, and find some natural objects, for example, stones, wood, small plants, trees, leaves.
Show your student the tape measure and remind them that we use centimetres (cm) to measure length.
Say: ‘There are 100cm in 1 metre, so when an object is longer than 1m, we usually use metres to measure it rather than
lots and lots of centimetres!’
Estimate the length of one of the objects you have found yourself. Look at how long a cm is on the tape measure with your student and, using this knowledge, say, for example, ‘The stone is longer than this centimetre. I think there might be about 10cm that would fit along th
e stone if I measured it, so my estimate is 10cm.’
Show your student how to measure the stone with the tape measure.
If your estimate was close, say, ‘So the tape measure helps me to know how close I was!’
If your estimate was not close, say, ‘It does not matter that I wasn’t close with my estimate. I will use this to help me learn more about the lengths of the next few objects.’
Challenge your student to do the same as you have just done with the rest of the objects. Show your student that as well as estimating and measuring lengths, we can also measure circumferences (the distance around, for example, a tree trunk).
Encourage your student to think like you did when they see how close they are to their estimations.
Extra Challenge
Ask your student to design a simple chart or table to record their estimations and measurements, similar to this.
| Object | Estimate (cm) | Measurement (cm) |
| Tree | ||
Workbook
To help your student consolidate their learning from today, please ask them to complete the activities on pages 50 and 51 of Abacus Workbook 1.