Activity 1 – Measuring at Home or Work.
Focus – I can talk about how and why measurement is used in everyday life.
Ask an adult about a time when they recently used a measuring device. Find out whether they used metric or imperial units, the equipment used, and whether they had to do any conversions (e.g. cm to m).
Activity 2 – Measure Search Around the Home.
Focus – I can talk about how and why measurement is used in everyday life.
Look around their house, especially in the kitchen, for examples where measurements are recorded. Talk about what you find with a family member, the unit of measure used and the equipment that might be used to measure this.
Activity 3 – Estimate Length Around the Home
Focus – I can use the measurements of everyday items to help me estimate.
Resources – you need to know how wide your handspan is.
Use your hand span measurement as a guide to estimate the length of different objects. Estimate in hand spans and the estimate in cm. For example, radiator: about 6 hand spans; my hand span is 12 cm, so the radiator is about 70 cm.
Activity 4 – Length in the Home Paper.
Focus – I can estimate and measure items and then check to see how close I was – Length.
Resources – pencil and paper A4 size (available from the school)
The long side of a piece of A4 paper is about 30 cm (in fact, it is exactly 29·7 cm). Use this to measure or estimate the length of objects around the house. Record your answers in cm and then convert to m and cm or cm and mm.
Activity 5 – Lighter or Heavier Than They Look?
Focus – I can estimate and measure items and then check to see how close I was – Weight.
Resources – household items.
Look at home and find some objects which are small in size but heavy, and some which are light but big in size. Talk together about why the objects may be light or heavy.
Activity 6 – Imperial Search.
Focus – I can estimate and measure items and then check to see how close I was – Weight
Resources – pencil, paper and household items
Look for items around the house that show imperial weights. Record the item and its imperial weight and work out the metric equivalent. (The weight of some items will be given in both imperial and metric units.
Activity 7 – Confusing or Not Containers.
Focus – I can estimate and measure items and then check to see how close I was – Capacity and liquid volume.
Resources – pencil, paper and household items
Look around the home, select some objects and decide whether it is easy or difficult to estimate the capacity, Note down or draw the object and say why you think its capacity is easy or difficult to estimate. For example, A tall narrow glass is hard – you might think it holds more than it really does. A milk carton is easy, you know it holds a litre.
