Learning to measure length

Last week, we began our Measurement unit by using connecting cubes to measure the longest side of objects in our room. One of the things we discovered was the need to be accurate when lining up our cubes and going from the exact edge all the way to the other edge.

We also needed to figure out a way to show what happened when we couldn't go right to the end of our object with our cubes. We discussed some ways we could show partial units.

We also tried measuring the same object with different units, and we discussed how the length of whatever you are measuring with can change the measurement you get. We measured objects with toothpicks, connecting cubes and unit cubes.

We then found that measuring with unit cubes (the kind we use to show 10's and 1's) was great because we could easily use the 10's block to quickly count by 10's. This was great when we were measuring long furniture! Plus, Mrs Wark got pretty excited about us counting by 10's all on our own.

We then learnt that a unit cube is very cleverly exactly one centimetre long! We have loved using our unit cubes as a measuring tool, because we can quickly count by 10's and then "count on" by 1's. We are also learning how to use another measuring tool - the ruler.