Calculating Compound Shapes

#TheCompleteSeries5lessons

With this Year 6 Maths five-lesson planning pack, take an in-depth look at a number of strategies for working out the area and perimeter of shapes – and calculating the volume of cuboids, too. Through the slides and activities, children are shown how to apply these strategies when calculating the areas, perimeters and volumes of increasingly complex compound shapes, and given plenty of opportunities to practise! To round of the week’s learning, the fifth lesson in this Complete Series challenges children to order volumes given using a range of different units of measurement.

#Lesson1AreaandPerimeter

Challenge children to find the area and perimeter of rectangles and rectilinear shapes in this Year 6 Maths lesson. Includes area and perimeter worksheets.

This is the first of five lessons in the 'Calculating Compound Shapes' Complete Series. In it, children are challenged to explore the various ways in which rectilinear shapes of a given area may be configured in different ways which alter the perimeter. Additionally, they will consider the ways in which shapes of different dimensions and areas may have the same perimeter.

There is a choice of differentiated area and perimeter activities, where children can continue to explore ways of finding the area and perimeter of rectangles—including squares—and rectilinear shapes using the worksheets, activity cards and area and perimeter questions included.

#Lesson2CompoundShapeArea

Find the area of compound shapes and calculate missing lengths of their sides.

The included slides with this Year 6 lesson explain some strategies to use when calculating the area of rectilinear compound shapes, and when trying to find missing lengths of sides around compound shapes. After looking at these strategies, challenge children to practise what they have learned during either of the two included activities.

#Lesson3TrianglesandIrregularShapesArea

Teach children how to find the area of any triangle, then use that knowledge to help calculate the area of more complex, irregular shapes. The skills taught (in this lesson's included slideshow presentation) can be used by your Year 6 pupils to find the area of a variety of polygons such as parallelograms and trapeziums, and complex compound shapes, too. As with other lessons in this KS2 Maths scheme of work, there is a choice of differentiated activities included as well as area of a triangle worksheets.

#Lesson4FindtheVolumeofaCuboid

Teach children the volume formula and challenge them to find the volume of cuboids and compound shapes made up of cuboids.

The included slideshow presentation describes the formula for finding the volume of cuboids. During the teaching input children are then challenged to use the formula straight away to find various volumes. They may then practise calculating the volume of cuboids or compound shapes constructed using only cuboids. Some children may even explore ways in which cuboids of different dimensions may have the same volume.

#Lesson5MeasuringandComparingVolume

Challenge children to estimate the volume of cuboids, then use a volume formula to measure and compare volumes.

In this final lesson in the 'Calculating Compound Shapes' Complete Series for Year 6, children will firstly be challenged to estimate the volume of cuboids with only two of their three dimensions given. They are subsequently challenged to order sets of volumes given in different units of measurement such as mm³, cm³, m³, km³. They may then either estimate and check the volume of a variety of cuboid-shaped boxes, or undertake a volume sorting activity.

Free Overview (Medium-Term Plan)

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Curriculum Objectives covered

• Year 6 - recognise that shapes with the same areas can have different perimeters and vice versa
• Year 6 - recognise when it is possible to use formulae for area and volume of shapes
• Year 6 - calculate the area of parallelograms and triangles