Teaching Measurement

I love teaching measurement! It’s so hands on and practical for the real world. Let’s face it, you use measurement in every day life. Trying to hang a picture on the wall? You need to measure to see if its centered. Buying a new couch, you need to measure to see if it will fit in the room. Second graders love measuring and using rulers.

I have a few tried and true hands on activities that I have my students work on. These are great for measuring stations or small groups.

The first one takes a little prep but can be used over and over again. I take strips of colored paper and measure them in different lengths. I make sure they measure exactly to the inch. Then I glue them down on cardstock and laminate. I number each piece of cardstock . Then on the recording sheet students write the card number they are working on and the measurement for each color. Easy!

After students can measure correctly then they need to work on comparing measurements. I collect a bunch of objects from around my kitchen and the classroom. Students then have to measure each one and decide how much longer one object is to another. For example, how much longer is the straw than the spoon? This makes a great little assessment grade:

The hardest skill in the measurement standard is solving measurement word problems. Students not only have to use their strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems but they need to be able to determine the correct operation.

We spend a good amount of time and repetition on word problems. Because students have difficulty determining the correct operation, we often just read through the problem together to determine whether it is an addition or subtraction problem, and then I have them solve it independently.