107- Non-Standard units of measurement

Our objective in math is that students understand that, when measuring objects, you would need more smaller units of measurement than you would larger units.
Since larger units of measurement take up more space, you wouldn't need as many to measure an object. Here are our experiments.

We used two objects, a cube and a playing card. We noticed that the cube was smaller than the card. In fact, it took 4 cubes to equal one card.

 

We decided to use these units to measure our chart paper. First we made predictions. Most of my students expected the number of cards used to be more than the number of cubes. In fact, the quote was, "It's bigger so the number will be bigger too."

 It took 44 cubes to measure the chart paper. When we used the playing cards, we noticed a huge difference!

Only 9?! How is this possible? Well, that is the question we set out to answer, and here it is...

Smaller units take up less space, therefore it will take more of them to fill an area. Larger units take up more space, so not as many are needed to fill a space.

But we need more proof. And we need to make it memorable. Hmmmm..... We'll use our classmates!

Here we have out tallest and shortest classmates. Our activity was measuring the classroom, using our classmates. We made predictions as to which classmate would have the bigger number, and how many of each it would take to cross the classroom. And, we took video!

We started with our shortest laying at one side of the room...

By the end, he was a pro!

Now, time for the tallest. We made more observations and predictions. Since our smallest classmate didn't take up as much space at our tallest, we had to use more of him. So, our number for the tallest should be a smaller number. Let's see if we were right!

We were right! 

The smaller unit of measurement had the bigger number, and the larger unit had the smaller number! 

Dang, we're good!

But will this work again? Is the third time a charm? Well, to test our theory, we'll need another student. But where can we find another student who is even shorter? Kindergarten!

He's a cutie, isn't he?

He had no clue what was going on, but he was such a trooper!

We were right again! He took up less space, so we needed more of him! By the end, I lost count and had to watch the video again to count properly!

**Phew!**
It was a fun lesson, and I know mys students had fun learning this objective. I hope they understand it enough for the test tomorrow!

This afternoon we spent some time giving back to the community. Parkridge Medical Center is one of our community partners and we appreciate all that they do for the school and our students. Part of how we give back as a school is we make cards for the patients during the different seasons.  Today we made our Valentines Day cards!

What creativity! I know they will cheer up many people. Great job, Soldiers!