Family Home and Life: Let's Measure That

Friday, June 8, 2012

Let's Measure That

Yesterday, I was looking for ways to keep my kiddos busy, teach them to think, and have fun. The older two are on summer break and playing with the ‘little’ kids wasn’t as fun as it use to be. So, today we played and learned about measuring things.

We decided we would create a report containing units of measure, using inches, from different items around the house. I gathered a ruler, retractable tape measure, and a cloth sewing tape along with my notebook and pen. I showed them that there are inches and meters on the measuring tools and that in the USA we use inches, those were the big numbers to look for. I talked to them about directional measurements such as side to side, top to bottom, tall, long, etc. Sometimes teamwork was needed, one holds the tape end and the other reads the measurement.

I was the report taker (it allowed me to sit while they did all the running around too) since the oldest is only six and can’t write so well yet. ‘Units of Measure’ I wrote at the top of my notebook. It went like this;

1. Stuffed toy rabbit 12” tall

2. Tv 28” top to bottom, 36” side to side

3. Play tunnel is 35” long and the opening, 18” wide, 57" around the opening

4. Magazine 11 ½” top to bottom by 8 ½” side to side

5. Pen I was writing with, 7” long

And so on. Then I talked them about using the measured objects to then measure other things with. There's more than one way to measure things you know. That went like this;

1. Sofa, 8 magazines long

2. T rex dino was 3 pens long

3. Play tunnel, 5 remote controls long

Of course the younger children didn’t really understand but they had fun too running around and bringing things to me they had measured. I filled a note book page with measurements and started the second before things wound down. It was fun, educational, gave me time off my feet, and it taught them to think and use team work.