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Measuring Angles: A Lighthouse Adventure with Pip

Measuring Angles: A Lighthouse Adventure with Pip

Learn about measuring angles in degrees with a protractor, then turn a lighthouse beam to estimate, draw and work out missing angles.

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What you'll learn

  • That angles measure turn in degrees, with 360° in a whole turn
  • How to tell acute, obtuse and reflex angles apart
  • How to measure an angle with a protractor using the right scale
  • How to draw an angle of a given size with a protractor
  • That quarter, half and three-quarter turns are 90°, 180° and 270°
  • How to find missing angles on a straight line and around a point

Chapter by chapter

  1. Angles as turns: measuring in degrees Free to try

    Year 5 maths · 1

  2. Acute, obtuse and reflex angles: estimate and compare

    Year 5 maths · 1

  3. Measuring angles in degrees with a protractor

    Year 5 maths · 2

  4. Drawing given angles with a protractor

    Year 5 maths · 2

  5. Quarter, half and whole turns: multiples of 90°

    Year 5 maths · 3

  6. Angles on a straight line (180°) and at a point (360°)

    Year 5 maths · 3

  7. Lighthouse Challenge (10 questions) (10 questions)

What the chapters cover in the national curriculum in England:

  1. Year 5 maths: Know angles are measured in degrees: estimate and compare acute, obtuse and reflex angles
  2. Year 5 maths: Draw given angles, and measure them in degrees (°)
  3. Year 5 maths: Identify: angles at a point and 1 whole turn (total 360°); angles at a point on a straight line and half a turn (total 180°); other multiples of 90°

About this adventure

Measuring Angles is an interactive maths game that teaches children aged 9–11 to estimate, measure and draw angles in degrees and to find missing angles, matching the Year 5 curriculum in England. Pip the puffin, keeper of Turnstone Lighthouse, reads every step aloud with captions, and the lamp's turning beam becomes the arm of each angle.

Children drag an on-screen protractor onto the vertex (the point where the two arms meet), choose the scale that starts at 0 and type their reading. They also mark and rule their own angles, sort acute, obtuse and reflex angles, and swing the beam through quarter, half and whole turns.

The game spots common slips, such as reading the wrong scale or using 360° on a straight line, and shows the fix straight away. A zoom bubble makes the protractor easy to read on a phone.

Questions and answers

How do you use a protractor to measure an angle?

Put the centre of the protractor exactly on the vertex, line the baseline up with one arm, then count up from the 0 on that arm and read where the other arm crosses that scale. Estimating first tells you whether the answer should be more or less than 90°.

What is the difference between acute, obtuse and reflex angles?

An acute angle is less than 90°, an obtuse angle is between 90° and 180°, and a reflex angle is more than 180° but less than 360°. A right angle is exactly 90°, and a straight line makes 180°.

How many degrees are there on a straight line and around a point?

Angles on a straight line add up to 180°, which is a half turn, and angles around a point add up to 360°, a whole turn. To find a missing angle, add the angles you know and take that total away from 180 or 360.

What age is this angles game for?

The game is for children aged 9 to 11 and follows the Year 5 maths curriculum in England, so it also suits Year 6 revision. Every line is read aloud with captions, and two optional warm-ups recap right angles and taking away from 180 and 360.

What does the angles game include and how long does it take?

It has six chapters, each with an animated introduction, hands-on tasks and a three-question quick check, plus a 10-question Lighthouse Challenge. Playing everything takes about 70 minutes, and children can start any chapter from the island map.

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