Fun Games to Teach Measurement
Games are a helpful classroom tool for getting students to practice their skills in an enjoyable and engaging way. When teaching measurement, use games to get students excited about measuring and see the real-world applications. Give students measuring practice by working with physical objects that they use in their daily lives.
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Measurement Scavenger Hunt
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This activity gets students practicing their measurement skills on unconventional objects. Provide students with a list of measurements, such as "2 feet" "1 foot and 6 inches" and "7 1/2 inches." Give each student a measuring stick, and have them all go on a scavenger hunt in the classroom to find objects that fit those measurements. The scavenger hunt can be expanded to the school if there aren't enough classroom objects to measure.
What's the Area?
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Physical aids help younger students understand concepts of measurements. For this game, explain to students that the concept of area can be imagined by thinking about how many blocks can fit inside of the object you are measuring. Provide students with 1-inch-by-1-inch blocks, and demonstrate how to find the area of various flat objects by covering them with 1-inch blocks. Have students explore the classroom and measure the area of as many different objects as they can find.
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Check the Temperature
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Students studying measurement should understand the different ways measurement affects our daily lives. For this activity, create a temperature graph for each day of the week and purchase a large, easily readable thermometer for your classroom. Every day, have students read the temperature and cut out large red strips to place on the temperature graph to indicate what the temperature was that day. Have students take turns checking the thermometer and graphing the results.
Measure Me!
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This interactive game will get students finding the measurements of their classmates. Provide students with a worksheet of various measurements to take, such as arm length, leg length, arm span, face width, head height and total-body height measurement. Give the students yard sticks, and have them pair off to take each other's measurements. Create a class graph showing the range of each measurement, such as arm length, of the class when all students are finished.
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References
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