Year 6 Maths

FOCUS

MG14 LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE

Administration
Key Teaching
Focus

1. Teach for differentiation. How to adapt the lesson to cater for

students that find the concepts easy or difficult?
2. Focus on student-centred approach set upthe concept in
terms that relate to their everyday lives ans is meaningful.
3. Focus on pedagogy and the outcomes are the students
using each other to learn? Are they getting enough
time/experience in their own discovery?
4. Calling on students is this providing a safe environment and
allowing all students to contribute as they feel best?

Duration

1 lesson

Essential
Question

What is latitude and longitude?

Australian
Curriculum

1. Interpret and use timetables (ACMMG139)

2. Connect decimal representations to the metric
system (ACMMG135)
3. Add and subtract decimals, with and without digital technologies,
and use estimation and rounding to check the reasonableness of
answers (ACMNA128)

Background

Latitude (Parallels)
Latitude is used to express how far north or south you are, relative to
the equator. If you are on the equator your latitude is zero. If you are
near the north pole your latitude is nearly 90 degrees north. If you are
near the south pole your latitude is almost 90 degrees south.
Conventionally latitude is expressed as degrees north or south.
Longitude (Meridians)
Longitude shows your location in an east-west direction, relative to the
Greenwich meridian. Places to the east of Greenwich (such as Middle
East, India and Japan) have longitude angles up to 180 degrees east.
Places to the west of Greenwich (such as the Atlantic and North and
South America) have angles up to 180 deg west.

Year 6 Maths
Introduction
15 mins

Link back to previous work:

1. Time measures when we are somewhere, or how long it will
take to get there, but
2. Where are we going exactly?

Set up the concept:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ab-gE8ov4o

2. Write on a board or a sheet of chart paper the terms latitude

and longitude. Let students share what they know about the
terms. Write down information that students share. Correct any
misconceptions they might share.

Demonstrating:
1. What is the difference between latitude and longitude? Students
-- and adults -- often have difficulty remembering which lines are
the flat lines that run across the globe parallel to the equator
and which are the lines that run from the North Pole to the
South Pole. You might provide a couple tricks" to help students
remember which is which.
a. Use a rhyme to help you remember. Rhymes such as
The flat lines are the lat lines" or The lines of latitude are
lines of flat-itude!" might help students remember which
is which.
b. Think of a ladder. A ladder has two long sticks and many
rungs that run between those sticks. Think of all the
ladders horizontal rungs as lines of latitude (or laddertude").
c. When you say the word longitude" your mouth opens
tall"/up and down. Lines of longitude are the lines that
extend tall" or up and down.

Presenting the method:

2. Students to use their atlases and open to the world map.
3. Using latitude and longitude points to locate different places on
the world map. Included in the modelling will be a variety of
2

Year 6 Maths
places; such as, cities, oceans, nations, mountain ranges.
4. Model using various places on the map and gives the latitude
and longitude points of those places. During modelling continual
focus to the N/S latitude and the E/W longitude differences.
Activity 1
Classroom work

Student work:
1. Complete activities on page 106 of iMaths in the remaining time.

15 mins

2. Use this time to check for understanding and make a mental

note of students that may need additional help.

Differentiation

1. Students can go on to challenge problems if they have finished

the work. Hand out additional worksheet Where is the world
2. Students that self identify that they need more help can come
up to the board. Go through the concepts again, step by step.
Encourage them to use the white board and each other to solve
problems.

Wrap up
5 mins

We will be working on issues related to time this week. Other concepts

that we will cover are longitude and latitude and time zones.

Resources

Refer to p. 106 of iMaths.

Atlases for students.

Assessment

Check on progress while students are working on the maths books.

make a mental note of the students that may require more help during
the second session.

Absent