In this unit students participate in a series of scavenger hunts to develop their own personal benchmarks for measures of 1cm, 10cm, 50cm and one metre. An understanding of the relationship between centimetres and metres is also developed.
Children need to recognise the need to move from using non standard to standard measures of length. The motivation for this arises out of students comparing differences in the lengths of different objects (e.g. in the length of their hand spans). From this the need for standard measurement becomes evident.
Students also need to develop personal benchmarks with which they can measure various objects in their daily lives. Their personal benchmarks need to gradually relate more to standard measures such as metres and 1/2 metres.
Ultimately, students should able to choose appropriately from a range of strategies including estimation, knowledge of benchmarks, and knowledge of standard measures to approach various measuring tasks with confidence and accuracy.
This unit can be differentiated by varying the scaffolding of the tasks or altering the difficulty of the tasks to make the learning opportunities accessible to a range of learners. For example:
This unit can be adapted to acknowledge student interests and contexts encouraging engagement. For example:
Te reo Māori vocabulary terms such as ine (measure), mita (metre), mitarau (centimetre), whakatau tata (estimate), and paerewa (benchmark) could be introduced in this unit and used throughout other mathematical learning.
This unit is run as a series of stations over four days with students rotating around the stations in groups. The final session is run as a class activity with all students working on the same task in groups. Consider grouping together students with mixed mathematical abilities in order to encourage collaboration (mahi tahi) and tuakana-teina (peer supported learning).
The four stations involve the students looking for objects that they estimate to be a certain length. You will need to set appropriate boundaries for their search, e.g. the classroom or the playground.
As students work, the teacher can circulate amongst the groups. Points to reinforce in your discussions with students include:
Introduce the concept of a scavenger hunt, and model how to complete the tasks at each station. Depending on the needs of your students, it may also be appropriate to model how to accurately measure items with a ruler. This modelling could be used to create a class chart or set of guidelines for measuring. In turn, this could be used to support students in practising accurate modelling skills throughout the session.
Students work in pairs or small groups to find items that they estimate to be 1cm long. They check their estimates by measuring.
Student Instructions (Copymaster 1)
Go on a Scavenger Hunt!
Object with estimated length 1cm | Measured length |
How accurate were your estimates?
Were your estimates too long or too short?
What would be a good way to try and remember how long 1cm is?
Students work in pairs or small groups to find items that they estimate to be 10cm long. They check their estimates by measuring.
Student Instructions (Copymaster 2)
Go on a Scavenger Hunt!
Object with estimated length 10cm | Measured length |
How accurate were your estimates?
Were your estimates too long or too short?
What would be a good way to try and remember how long 10cm is?
Students work in pairs or small groups to find items that they estimate to be 50cm long. They check their estimates by measuring.
Student Instructions (Copymaster 3)
Go on a Scavenger Hunt!
Object with estimated length 50cm | Measured length | Difference between estimated and measured length |
How accurate were your estimates?
Were your estimates too long or too short?
What would be a good way to try and remember how long 50cm is?
Students work in pairs or small groups to find items that they estimate to be 1metre long. They check their estimates by measuring.
Student Instructions (Copymaster 4)
Go on a Scavenger Hunt!
Object with estimated length 50cm | Measured length | Difference between estimated and measured length |
How accurate were your estimates?
Were your estimates too long or too short?
What would be a good way to try and remember how long 1 metre is?
At the conclusion of the session reveal the correct letters for the 1cm, 10cm, 50 cm and 1 metre lengths. Students check their answers and have a chance to measure the strips they chose as required.
Students who finish the activity early could estimate and measure the lengths of the other paper strips at the stations.
Dear parents and whānau,
This week in maths we are working on estimating lengths of up to a metre. Please help your child find any objects at home that they estimate to be 1cm, 10 cm, half a metre, and 1 m long. They can record the names of the objects and the estimations in their book. Ask them to choose one object to bring to school so we can measure it carefully to check their estimation.
Printed from https://meaningfulmaths.nt.edu.au/mmws/nz/resource/scavenger-hunt at 8:44pm on the 26th February 2024