The Area Song…

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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