The children have shown lots of interest in cars and have started exploring how they move on the car mat and in the garage. They have all used their imagination to create a variety of scenarios. Some of the children then decided to created their own garage, bridges and roads using the wooden blocks. It was like the Cart Mill city!

Afterwards, we decided to make ramps which we angled so that we could measure how far each of our cars could go. The children waited patiently for their turn and made predictions of how far they though their car would go. We experimented with different ways to measure. We used a variety of different tools such as a measuring tapes and pine cones to measure how far our cars went.

We had lots of fun taking turns racing each other to see which car went the furthest. We had a group discussion of whose was the furthest, developing our awareness of distance as well as some negotiation techniques!

“mine went the furthest”

” I won”

” look how far mine went”
” mine was super speedy”

We were also able to recognise some familiar numbers on the measuring tape and use these numbers to determine whose car ACTUALLY went the furthest.

We were able to use our mathematical language in discussions about distance such as length, distance and measure. “My car went to the 2 and the 3”

“7 pine cones”                                                                   2 and 3

This was a fun measuring experience for all children, regardless of age, which developed an awareness of measurement using non – standards of measurement as well as introducing standard measurement during play.