How do you teach kids to remember how to calculate areas of shapes? Here’s one method…
Sing the following song to the tune of Pop Goes The Weasel:
Verse 1:
Multiply the length by the width
Gives the area of a rectangle.
Base times height divided by two
Now gives a triangle.
Verse 2:
Half the sum of the parallel sides
Times the distance between them.
That’s the way to calculate
The area of a trapezium.
If you start them off in year 7 regularly singing the first verse, then move them onto singing the second verse regularly in year 9 by the time they get to their exam in year 11 they’ll never forget how to calculate areas!
Here is a link to a pdf file with the song lyrics on that you can show on the interactive white board.
I can’t remember who told us of this one but a big thank you to you!
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