Have you been finding yourself in any awesome math scenarios since we last me? I hope so, because I sure have! This week in math we looked at measurement. I will be focussing on a few of the great activities that my colleagues introduced to our class this week because I really think that they are noteworthy and helpful for teaching and student learning.
There are so many units of measurement out there and students should develop skills to understand when different units make sense, depending on what they are measuring. In this blog, we will be using the metric system because it is the most used measurement system across the world! Only THREE out of 195 countries use the Imperial system of measurement, can you guess which ones?
Pretty interesting, right?!
Now, let's take a look at an engaging video used to introduce the idea of non-standard units of measurement. ⬇
Standardized and Non-standardized Units of Measurement
Non-standardized units of measurement are important because they get students using their mathematical thinking processes for measurement strands. Marian Small (2016) states in her book "Making Math Meaningful to Canadian Students, K-8" that, "ideas about area [and measurement] can be introduced through the same three stages as other measurement[:] concepts-definition/comparison, using nonstandard units, and standard units". Measurement is basically a number of pre-determined units, that can extend as much as the object they are placed against. Moreover, non-standard units are used to ease students into eventually applying standard unit measurements, specifically with metric units. The base unit of the metric system is meters, litres and grams depending on the item you are measuring such as, volume, weight and distance.
As you saw in the engaging video, using items like a potato and a football to build a non-standard unit and measure objects with it is fun for students and gets them thinking about what measurement really is plus how to do it! Once students get this basic understanding, they can begin to use standard units of measurement from the metric system. Standard units for distance in meters that students need to understand by Grade 6 are Kilo, Hecto, Deca, Base, Deci, Centi, Milli. You then add the standard unit name, for example, a kilometer.
Using Starbursts Candy for Measurement
 |
| No attribution required. |
This activity was taken from the book "Making Math Meaningful to Canadian Students, K-8" by Marian Small, and it gets students ready to measure area. The activity states to:
"Ask students to do the following: cut five pictures out of a magazine, then [ask] which picture covers the biggest? How do you know? [Then] put your five pictures in order from smallest area to largest area".
Nonstandard units of measurement are applied here because students are using unconventional units, Starbursts, to figure out what shapes are bigger and smaller than each other. As you can see, Starbursts are made into small rectangles and this works well for conceptualizing measurements. We also had a piece of graph paper to use if we needed to outline the shapes and count the squares to make the comparisons. Students could also use estimation with this activity and build those skills as well.
This activity touches on the Ontario Curriculum for Grade 4 students and it states:
Overall Expectations
- estimate, measure, and record length, perimeter, area, mass, capacity, volume, and elapsed time, using a variety of strategies
Specific Expectations
- estimate, measure using concrete materials, and record volume, and relate volume to the space taken up by an object
Thus, the Starbursts activity is a great way to get students engaged and introduced to the concepts of area, perimeter and measurement. Moreover, the spatial relationships between objects and their measurements.
 |
| Stacy Pearson (2013, March 26). Measurement [Image]. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2hib7Ub |
It appears that back in the middle ages, one of the Kings of England really love his chocolate milk and it was also, sadly his last drink. According to this acronym, that chocolate milk was probably poisoned by someone that wanted take over King Henry's throne! Whatever actually happened and why we may or may never know. This acronym, however, is a great way for students to remember their standard units.
This fun chart was introduced as an additional activity today for principles in measurement. It is used to demonstrate how exactly students can learn to convert between standard metric units. This activity had the engaging acronym "King Henry Died By/Unexpectedly Drinking Chocolate Milk (note: By and Unexpectedly are used interchangeably as the base unit)" displayed as an anchor-chart for students to answer conversion questions along with more challenging, thinking and application questions. Students can really use the simplicity and cognitive benefits of acronyms and this is a perfect way to introduce this skill into the math curriculum!
Next Week
I hope that you, my friends, enjoyed the fun activities that you can do or have your students do in the junior and intermediate classrooms to help foster measurement skills! These activities were fun and quite yummy and I believe students will really enjoy trying them out.
Join me next week for more math adventures!
Teddy
No comments:
Post a Comment