Practical Maths #2. Gardening

As the weather improves, you might be planning to spend your home-schooling days in the garden. But, just because you’re outside, it doesn’t mean that the learning has to stop. In fact, using the garden as an outdoor classroom offers lots of different opportunities for learning. Why not try the following activities with your Key Stage 2 children:

-  Using line graphs to show: levels of rainfall, the height of flowers (especially sunflowers at this time of year), temperature or the volume of water in your water butt (you can make a water butt by cutting a large plastic soft drinks container in half- this is even better as you can see through it AND write on it). Use a table to record your results every hour then, after a few days, plot onto a line graph. Ask questions about the data: when was it coldest? On which day did it rain the most? etc.

- Measures: find the area and perimeter of your garden/ flower beds etc. Measure the height of your plants in cm/mm and convert. Calculate how much something has grown by finding the difference between measurements taken.

-  Time: make a sun dial by sticking a garden cane in a sunny spot. Use chalks to draw the lengths and directions of the shadows. This also provides a really good opportunity to talk about day, night and the seasons in relation to the movement of the earth and moon.

-   Teach compass points and instructions, including left and right. Play ‘blind-man’s buff’, giving directions to help your child through an obstacle course in your garden.

I hope that you find these ideas useful and that you enjoy what promises to be a beautiful week 😊