Measure, Yea, Measure

Good Morning and Happy Friday!
   
     I swear, for being a 4 day week (with kids), it sure did seem to crawl by. The last week before Christmas break, 2nd grade learned about measurement, and this week it was Kindergarten's turn to start learning. Here a couple of the activities I did that the kids seemed to really enjoy :)

     In second grade, we learned about height, width, length, and perimeter. Conveniently enough, this was the week before Christmas break, and also the week I had my unannounced drop-in evaluation. Luckily, I had some fun activities for the kids to do that involved moving around so it turned out just fine.

*Day 1: I introduced measurement by having the kids lie down on the floor, while I proceeded to put down a piece of tape that reached from their head to their toes. They were pretty confused as to what I was doing, but eventually they started to figure out what our new topic was going to be. We then went on to discuss how we measure, the different things you can use to measure, and so on. Eventually, we integrated our reading skill for the week of comparing and they had to compare to see who was the tallest and shortest. It was fun, and a great way to relate it to real life.

I let them mark of my height as well, they got a real kick out of that. Fortunately, I can say I am taller than all of my 2nd graders... but it is definitely not by much!

O

     Over the next couple of days, we learned about width, length, and height and what standard form of measurement you would use to measure various things. The last half of the week, we explore perimeter. I taped down 3 different shapes, and used the tiles and drew dots to signify the "units". Each shape had a different color. Each student started in the color listed first on the note card I made for them, and had 1 minute to find the perimeter of that shape. After the minute was up, they switched to the next color on their card and continued rotating until they each had the perimeter of all 3 shapes. Once they had this, I had them record their answers on a chart on my SmartBoard to see if they all got the same answer, and so they could defend their answer if need be. Once we wrote down the results, we went back as a group and counted to find the perimeter to double check our answers. It was a lot of fun, and the competition aspect really had the kids into it! (Unfortunately, I did not get to take any pictures of the perimeter activity because it was the day I had my evaluation. )

     Now to Kindergarten. We have been learning about measurement all week. First thing I did was find a video on all types of measurement... low and behold I found this gem Measure, Yea, Measure (YES YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS, it's kind of catchy...). Oh. My. Word. I need to find who comes up with these things, but either way, the kids loved it and we ended up watching it 2 days in a row! The first activity we did was taping down their height (as I did with 2nd grade) and we found various things in the room to measure with. We used markers, cubes, our feet, and a couple of other things. They had fun finding things to use and seeing how tall they were :)

Not the best picture, but they measured using dry erase markers and linking cubes. (The linking cubes were put together in groups of 10, to reinforce the use of counting by 10s)

     Then we decided we wanted to measure something even bigger! So, after a little deliberation, the kids decided they wanted to measure the length of the classroom. We discussed what would be the best thing to use, and talked about why cubes wouldn't be good because they are so small, and eliminated a few more options. I then showed them this video, Sid the Science Kid , and they decided they wanted to make paper bodies, like in the video, and measure it that way. So we got to tracing bodies and cutting them out.

Tracing them out.

The finished paper bodies, with names.

     Today was the last day on measurement with Kindergarten, so we measured our classroom with the paper bodies and recorded how many "insert students' name here" long the classroom was on each cut-out. For example, "The classroom is 10 Ms. Curps long". I think this is a great activity and it is a good way to get them up and moving, as well as working together!

The finished product.

      That is all for now, I hope you all have a wonderful Friday, and an even better weekend. Hopefully it doesn't fly by too quickly :)