We are all about measuring this week. This has been a fun week in Math so far and it's only Tuesday! I teach two Math classes. The first class is right after recess and belongs to the other teacher in my pod, and the second is with my homeroom. In my first class, I asked the kids to get out some supplies and one of my kiddos said, "I was so excited for Math today I left my work box in my desk!" Talk about a happy teacher! (It's every teacher's dream that their students are so excited about learning that they forget their supplies, right?! Ha!)
Keeping the students engaged and interested this far into the school year is my mission. After spring break we are in the home stretch for summer vacation (insert happy dance here!). Usually the kids are pretty squirmy, but since it's still in the 30s here (in April.....the 30s) they've been pretty good. Below are some pictures of an engaging measurement activity from the
Measure Up! unit by
Hope King.
First, I read the kiddos the book "How Big is a Foot?" by Rolf Myller.
It's about a King who wants to get the Queen a bed for her birthday. But how big is a bed? The King uses his foot to find out the measurements instead of using a standard unit of measurement. Will the King get a bed in the correct size in time for the Queen's birthday?
Next, I explained that the students were going to be on a TOP SECRET mission to build the Queen a bed. I put the students into groups where they assembled the beds.
When the groups were finished creating their beds I collected them from each group, all while trying to prevent the other groups from realizing they all did different sized feet. The students came to the carpet where the beds were unveiled. We compared the different beds and talked about standard and nonstandard units of measure.
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