Learning By Topic KS2: Gardening and Mathematics

Measure the perimeter and area of your garden.

What 3D shapes can you identify around your garden? Can you list/label the properties for each shape? E.g. number of faces and vertices.

Once a seedling appears (from your Science task) measure the height of it every morning and every night until the bud appears. Then plot these measurements on a line graph to show its growth/progress.

Over a week, keep a record of how long you spend in your garden each day. Plot this data on a bar graph. Now interpret the data: on which day did you spend the longest amount of time outside? On which day did you spend the shortest amount of time outside? What was the total amount of time you spent outside? Record this in hours. Extension: can you convert and record the total amount of time spent outside from hours to minutes and then possibly even seconds?

Upper KS2: From the above data can you find the mean, median, range and mode?

Measure different angles around your garden. Maybe take some photos and then sort them into a table with the heading, acute angles, right angles, obtuse angles, straight angles and reflex angles. Top Tip: You can either print photos for this activity or construct your table on the computer and cut and paste the photos in.

Think about professions that involve people working in gardens – for example, horticulturists and landscapers. In what ways do they use maths in their jobs?