How large is the area outside the classroom? How can we plan and design the space by drawing a design and knowing the objects will fit in the space?

WALT: Use problem solving skills to answer a question.
Understand how scaled drawings can help us to plan and design a space.

WILF: Discuss and consider methods for answering a question within a group. 
Plan the objects children would like in the space – calculating if they will fit.

We have been working on our problem solving skills this week in maths. Working in groups we have been working on answering the following questions...

How large is the area outside the classroom?  
How can we plan and design the space by drawing a design and knowing the objects will fit in the space?


To answer these questions we thought the best thing to do was to measure the area outside. After a long conversation within our groups about the area we needed to measure, we set about with our trundle wheels.

Miss Bailey had given us the space in one area of the plan. We then measured thesides of the area we wanted to calculate. With this information we set about developing our own ideas of how we could use it to answer the question. It was very difficult! Jack, Dylan and Alfie tried to count in metre blocks, by measuring each one, but they soon realised this would take too long. 

Other people decided to count how many of the already measured area would fit inside space we wanted to calculate and we said we would then add them altogether. Clever thinking!

It was not until we had a further clue from Miss Bailey that some of us worked out she had multiplied the two measurements together. At last! We had discovered a simple solution to our problem.

Well done to Alfie, Jack and Dylan group who are our problem solvers of the week and didn't give up when things got tricky!

We began working on the next problem today and we have worked really hard to understand that shrinking down a measurement using a scale can help us to draw plans.

We divided the actual measurements of objects by 10, so that we could draw them on a piece of paper. Tomorrow, we are going to think about how to use these drawings to plan our outside area. Wish us luck!