Calculating canopies

Get pupils thinking about the importance of rainforests with a tropical-themed maths activity from Theonlyhelsbells!.

What is it?

A cross-curricular project that gets groups of pupils to design their own rainforest, before labelling their drawings with fractions (for example, that three out of seven trees are tall, or nine out of 10 creatures are poisonous). This is followed by questions on fractions, such as what half the number of trees would be.

Why is it useful?

This project incorporates maths into topic work effectively, and also encourages more creative pupils to engage in mathematical problem-solving.

It can be used at the end of a rainforest unit to test pupils’ geographical knowledge as well - make sure they think carefully about the creatures and vegetation they should include in their drawings.

What else?

Theonlyhelsbells! has included three differentiated versions of the activity for Years 3, 4 and 6.