Converting Unit - Calculate with Metric Measures - Planning

In the Year 6 curriculum, a lesson on calculating with metric measures is designed to enhance students' understanding of measurement conversions within real-world contexts. The lesson begins with a starter that prompts students to recall previous learning and then moves on to class teaching input where they tackle word problems requiring metric conversions. For example, students are asked to determine how many 50 ml bottles can be filled from 3 litres of suntan lotion. This problem serves to illustrate the necessity of converting litres to millilitres before performing the division operation to find the answer. The lesson progresses with more complex scenarios, such as calculating the total weight of multiple vases in kilograms, and encourages the use of visual aids like bar models to facilitate understanding.

During independent learning, students engage in group work, tackling reasoning problems from teaching slides and completing worksheets that vary in difficulty to cater to different levels of proficiency. Key questions guide them to choose the appropriate mathematical operation and conversion method. The lesson aims to correct common misconceptions by using visual representations to decide which operation to apply. By the end of the session, students reflect on what they have learned, including problem-solving with metric measures, choosing operations, and converting between different units. The lesson differentiates between students working towards expected levels and those achieving greater depth, with the latter group solving more complex multi-step problems with varied decimal figures.