Linear Measurement
Materials
The children should have a variety of material from which to choose. They should also have a variety of units of measurement:
- A tape measure
- Fibre-glass tape measure
- Lengths in wood, or stiff cardboard, of the following unmarked measurements: 10 cms and 1 metre, 1 inch, 1 foot, 3 foot (The unmarked lengths allow the child to discover.)
- A trundle wheel (e.g. with a circumference of 3 feet, each foot being marked. It ‘clicks’ after each complete revolution.)
- Have a measure on the wall.
- A box of slips (several of each).
- All metric measurements: Kilometres, metres, centimetres and millimetres.
N.B. The children must be familiar with the terms: length, breadth, height, width. Always ask the child to estimate first.
Presentation
- What would you use to measure:
- The door? The window? A book? A match stick? The playground? The road?
- Using your span as the unit of measurement, find out how long is: Your table, The bookshelf, The classroom.
- Write down your results.
- Give the child other measuring tasks.
- Perhaps they have noticed that their shadow varies in length? This is an experiment to find out when shadows are longest and when shortest. You must choose a fine day for this experiment. You need a stick in the ground. a) Choose a suitable open space and set the stick upright at right angles to the ground. b) Begin as early as possible in the day and measure the length of the stick’s ·shadow every half hour. Keep a careful record.
| Times | Length of shadow in centimeters |
|---|---|
| 9:00 am | |
| 9:30 am | |
| 10:00 am | |
| 10:30 am |
c) Make a graph showing the time and length of your shadow. The teacher has to show the child how to draw a line (called a graph) and explain on examples what it proves.
d) At what time was the shadow longest? the shortest?
e) How many times longer than the actual stick was the longest shadow?
Liquid Measurement
Materials
- Pint, liter, half-liter, cup, quart, and gallon containers.
- A sponge cloth.
- Plastic Mats.
The child may use jars and ordinary containers at the beginning.
Presentation
Before the children start this, it is advisable that they should have a working knowledge of fractions and have got as far as doing addition with fractions.
- Show the children how to fill the containers very slowly and carefully, after having placed the container on a mat.
- Fill the containers, and say how much they contain.
- Let the child discover for himself the relationship between the size of the containers.
- Give him problem slips for when working on his own: What is left if we take 3 Pints from 4 Quarts, or e.g. 1/2 Litre from 1 Litre etc.
- The Pint bottle fills the half-pint bottle?
- The quart container fills the pint container? How many times?
- Will the quart container fill a two gallon bucket?
- I have a gallon of milk. I have 10 pint bottles. How many of the bottles could I fill with my gallon of milk?
- Show the child how to write gallon, quart, pint, in their abbreviated forms: gal, pt, qt, and also litres and all capacity metric measures.