Measurement Explorations

We have been working on finding items in the classroom that are about as long as the white cuisinaire rod. Once students each found 5 items (everything from a rainbow cube to a pet rat’s ear), we learned that the white rod is one centimeter long. Another day we did the same activity using inch cubes.

After these explorations, students had to measure some things at home with rulers or yardsticks for homework. Where possible they were to measure in English and metric units. As we shared the results of their measurements, we developed a clearer sense of the relationship between an inch and a centimeter. We completed charts in our journals where we estimated and then measured parts of our bodies, such as length of hand, length of foot, and circumference of head. We have continued our measurement explorations by beginning to talk about the concept of area and perimeter, applying the idea to items such as our classroom bench and rug.