At this time of year it is nice to get out of the classroom and into the playground with students. Before heading outside have students measure some lengths using string, surveyor tape or cashier tape then find things outside that are equal to, longer than or shorter than.

Early years I use around forehead, wrist, length of cubit (tip of elbow to end of middle finger), hand span.
But for Grade 3 and up we should be using meters. I give students a length of cashier tape or surveyor tape and a ten rod from the base 10 materials. The task is to measure out a meter.

The 10 rod is 10 cm long. See how my pinkie fits in each one. That's how I
know it is 10 cm.
Measure out a meter, then go measure distances on the playground. The distance between things, around things, from one thing to another. Measure out 3 meters, 5 meters, 10 meters.


We measured across the grass. Here is the first 2 meters. It was 5 meters across the spot we were in.


I found a tree that was almost 1 meter around.
BUT LOOK FOR GRADE 4 AND 5, we added the decimal tenths. We labelled each of the 10 cm lengths as a decimal part of the meter. See........


I measured a tree trunk that is almost perfectly 0.9 or 9 tenths of a meter around. Here it is.

Here are a few more ideas for taking measurement outside with your students this June.
Comments