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!