Showing posts with label Measurement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Measurement. Show all posts
Friday, November 20, 2015
Subitizing Plates
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Measurement Conversion Game
Your child will become the master of quick conversions with this fun card game! Using a deck of cards, she'll test her knowledge of the metric system by converting numbers from centimeters to millimeters. This game is a great way to quickly improve her understanding of the concept of measurement while she practices her multiplication.
What You Need:
- Deck of cards with the face cards (jacks, queens, and kings) removed
- 2 or more players
What You Do:
- Have your child shuffle the cards and place the deck face down on the table. Tell her that for the purposes of this game aces = 1.
- Ask her to flip the first card face up and set it on the table.
- The player who can convert the card number from centimeters to millimeters first gets to keep the card. (For example: if the card is 6, everyone races to say "60 millimeters!" 6 cm x 10 = 60 mm.)
- Whoever wins the round gets to flip the next card over.
- Continue playing until the deck runs out.
Understanding Volume
Teach your child about volume and mass with this hands-on activity. Ask her who she thinks has the "biggest" fist in the family. Looks can be deceiving! She'll be learning about these important scientific concepts and what it means to measure for volume, rather than size.
What You Need:
- Bowl large enough for fists
- Paper tape
- Erasable marker
What You Do:
- Have your child fill the bowl halfway with water and mark the water level with the marker.
- Ask her to make a fist and put it in the bowl of water. Mark the new water level to indicate how much the water has risen. The space between the first and second mark represents the volume of your child's hand.
- Have all the members of the family put their fists in the bowl of water, marking the water each time. Whoever displaces the most water has the biggest fist!
Did You Know? When Archimedes, the ancient Greek mathematician, hopped in the bathtub, he noticed that the water rose a little bit and realized that he had just discovered how to measure volume. The story goes that he was so excited, he ran down the street naked shouting, “Eureka!” (that means "I've found it!" in Greek) Though your child may not have quite same reaction to the wonders of volume, this simple experiment is nonetheless a great introduction to an important mathematical concept.
Foot Fun!
To understand measurement, kids need direct experiences with comparing and ordering objects. But that doesn’t necessarily mean sitting down with a ruler. It might mean figuring out which jump rope is the longest, or which ball is larger than the bouncy ball, but smaller than the basketball. This measurement activity uses feet to compare objects, but not the ones found on rulers and measuring sticks…the feet on your child’s own body!
What You Need:
- Construction paper
- Markers
- Scissors
- Household objects
- Your family’s feet!
What You Do:
- Trace a copy of your child’s right foot onto construction paper. Give her a stack of the paper and ask her to trace each family member’s right foot on a separate sheet. Cut out each foot pattern and label it with the name of its owner. Examine the foot patterns and discuss similarities and differences. Who has the biggest foot? The smallest? Are any of them the same size? Ask your child to place the foot patterns in order from largest to smallest and from smallest to largest.
- Much of measurement is about comparing things. Challenge your child to use her foot cut-out and find something longer than, shorter than, and about the same size as her foot. Give her construction paper and markers and ask her to trace a model of these items. Recording findings is an essential organizational tool and helps your child learn how real-life mathematicians and scientists record their findings in order to discuss their work with others.
- Ask your child to choose another foot pattern to measure things around your home. For example, how many Dad foot lengths long is the kitchen table? How many Mom foot lengths wide is the refrigerator? Use the foot cut-outs from other family members to measure the same household objects and compare the results. Did it take more or less Mom foot lengths to measure the kitchen table?
- Ask your child to walk from his bedroom to the front door. How many steps does it take? Record the number on a piece of paper and then have another member of the family do the same thing. How many steps does it take them? Was it more or less than your child’s answer? Discuss why. Then graph your results. An easy way to do this is to write the names of each of the family members on the bottom of a piece of paper, going left to right. Above each name, draw the number of feet it took to reach the door. (For example, if it took 12 steps, stack 12 foot pictures on top of each other.)
With practice like this, your child is sure to enjoy measuring up!
Latrenda Knighten has spent 19 years teaching in a variety of elementary school classrooms, from kindergarten through fifth grade. For nine of those years, she taught kindergarten. She also served as an elementary school math and science specialist. She lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Autumn More or Less
Encourage your child to compare and contrast a wide variety of autumn-themed items as she learns to weigh the various objects and record her findings.
What You Need:
- Autumn-themed objects such as acorns, leaves, sweet gum balls, small pumpkins and gourds Include something that is deceptively heavy or light, such as the gourd
- A postal scale or kitchen scale
- Paper
- Pencil
What You Do:
- Don’t let your child handle anything yet because some of the weights might be surprising. Start this activity by reviewing what you’ve gathered with your child. Does she know what everything is? If not, name the items and explain to her what they are.
- Which item does she think is heaviest? Place that on the far left of the table. Which does she think is the lightest? Place that on the far right. Now, help her organize the remaining items from heavy to light.
- Have her help you zero the scale as you explain that the scale is a tool that measures weight. Now it is time to weigh the item she thought was heaviest and write down the weight, including the unit of measurement. Working from heavy to light, weigh each item and record the results.
- Once all of the items have been weighed, look at the numbers. Are there any surprises? What items weighed more than she thought they would? Which weighed less?
- Help her arrange the items across the table from heavy to light, this time working from the measurements themselves. Are the heavy items always bigger than the lighter items? Why does she think that some things weigh more than others?
Expand on this activity by comparing the weights of her favorite snacks (apples vs grapes) or any other small items.
Estimation Breakfast
Remember that old carnival game where you had to guess how many jellybeans were in a jar? Well, guessing is more than pure fun, it’s also a key part of kindergarten math. Here’s how to bring it to the breakfast table!
What You Need:
- Box of cereal with just one general shape and size (ex. Cheerios or Chex)
- Bowl
- Spoon
- Baggie
What You Do:
- The word estimation sounds a bit intimidating. Start by explaining to your child that when we estimate, we’re just making a good guess about how many of something we see.
- Ask your child to scoop out a spoonful of cereal using the spoon. Then ask her to estimate how many pieces are on the spoon, without counting them.
- Once she’s made her guess, count the cereal pieces together. Ask your child, “Was your estimate close?” and “Were there more or less pieces on the spoon than you thought?”
- Dump the spoonful of cereal into the plastic baggie. Then scoop a few more spoonfuls into the bag (four is plenty) and ask your child to estimate the total. Once she’s guessed, count the cereal pieces in the baggie and ask the same two questions, “Was your estimate close?” and “Were there more or less pieces than you thought?”
- Dump the contents of the baggie into a bowl and add some more cereal to it. Ask your child to estimate how many pieces are in the bowl. Now pour in some milk, and have her count as she eats them up to see how close she got!
Make a Bungee Scale
Because your child’s favorite plush cat is bigger than a small brick, she probably thinks Kitty weighs more. But weight is more complex than the size of an object. Introduce the concept of weight to your child by making a fun and easy-to-use bungee scale! This project will enhance your child's understanding of weight and will even provide her will a foundation for understanding more complex scientific principles such as density and gravity.
What You Need:
- A large plush toy (we used a kitty)
- A dense object (we used a brick)
- A variety of other objects, some of which are deceptively heavy or light
- Bungee cord
- Bucket
- Roll of paper
- Marker
What You Do:
- Find a rod with a wall behind it to build your scale. You can use a rod in a closet or perhaps a rod on a rolling rack set near a wall.
- Fasten the bungee cord to the bucket. You may need to wrap the bungee cord around the bucket’s handle and secure the fastener to the cord itself.
- Hang this from the rod.
- Place the objects that you plan to weigh near the scale. You will need a large plush toy (kitty), a smaller dense object (brick), and a variety of other objects.
- Don’t let your child pick anything up yet, but explain to her that she is going to help you arrange the objects by how much they weigh. Begin with Kitty and the brick. Which does she think is heavier? She will probably say her toy since it is bigger. Set them back down with the object she thinks is lighter to the left.
- Now show her another one of the objects. Does she think it is lighter than Kitty? Heavier than the brick? Or somewhere in the middle. Arrange the objects in order, lightest to heaviest.
- Take a photo of the row of objects so that you can compare this line up with the results you get when you weigh each object.
- Explain that you are going to weigh things using your scale. The heavier each object is, the farther down the bucket will go.
- Have her put the plush toy in the bucket. How far does the bucket drop? Draw a mark even with the top of the bucket. Label the mark – Kitty.
- Now weigh the brick. Again, make a mark at the top of the bucket and label the mark – Brick. It is lower than the mark for the Kitty because the brick weighs more.
- Continue until you have weighed each object and marked it on the paper. Arrange the objects by their actual weight. How does this line up compare to the lineup in the photo?
As an add-on to this activity, encourage your child to arrange the objects on the ground in order of their weight.
Adapted with permission from "Count On Math: Activities for Small Hands and Lively Minds." Copyright 1997 by Pam Schiller and Lynne Peterson. Used with permission of Gryphon House, Inc., Maryland. All Rights Reserved.
How Old is that Tree?
Every year on our birthday we have a reminder of how old we are. And if we ever forget, we can always ask our parents! How do you think you find out how old a tree is? When a tree has been cut down, you can count its "rings" in order to tell how old it is, but what about when it is alive? We can't ask a tree how old it is. But there is a way! This activity will teach you and your child a way to estimate the age of a tree without cutting it down. It doesn't work with every tree but it will with a lot of them.
What You Need:
- Tree
- Measuring tape
- Marker
- Pen
- Paper
- Helper
What You Do:
- Help your child find a tree that is at least as tall as a grown up and have your child wrap the measuring tape around the widest part of the trunk. (A grown up might need to help with this part!) The distance around the trunk of a tree is called the circumference. Write this measurement down on a piece of paper.
- The measurement of the circumference in inches is also the approximate age of the tree in years!
Did You Know?
Every year a new layer of growth occurs just under the bark. Some trees like firs and redwoods may grow more than this in a year, while others like cedars may grow less. This method is a good rule of thumb to estimate the age of a tree.
Length, Mass, Liquid Volume Flip Book
Teach your students length, mass, volume and the different conversions within each.
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