Ratio - Calculating Scale Factors - Planning

In the second week of the Spring term, Year 6 students delve into the concept of scale factors within the topic of Ratio and Proportion. The lesson begins with a starter activity to refresh their memory on related topics. The objective is to teach students how to find scale factors between similar shapes, clarifying that 'similar' in a mathematical context means one shape is an exact enlargement of another. The initial activity involves presenting two similar rectangles on a grid, where students use given stem sentences to describe the relationship between the sizes of the shapes and the scale factor. Through guided discussion and modelling, students learn to calculate the scale factor by comparing the side lengths of the rectangles, reinforcing their understanding with multiplication and division facts.

Further exploration of scale factors is facilitated through an activity using a conversion table of similar rectangles with some missing dimensions. Students are tasked with filling in these gaps and determining the scale factors between different pairs of rectangles. This hands-on activity encourages partner discussions on strategies for finding missing dimensions using known scale factors. Group work and independent learning are supported by differentiated worksheets, and the lesson concludes with a plenary to address misconceptions and consolidate learning. The lesson plan includes reflection prompts to help students articulate what they've learned, the skills they've utilized, and what they found challenging. Differentiated fluency levels are provided, with simpler whole measurements for those 'working towards', decimal measurements for those 'at expected' level, and more complex scenarios for those 'working at greater depth'.