Measurement Crafts

• Give every student a 1-inch ruler. Have students examine the ruler and measure things around the classroom to get an idea of how long (or short) an inch is. Next, tell children that they need to make a craft using strips of paper that are only 1-inch long. Students should measure inch-long pieces of construction paper and cut the paper pieces out, then assemble the pieces into anything using glue, glitter and other craft materials.
  
  Use this project for whatever measurement unit you are working with at that moment. You should teach the metric system as well using centimeters.
  
  The key point of this exercise is that it helps children move the inch from a concept to a real-world measurement.
  
  

Stuffed Animal Height

• Have every child bring in his favorite stuffed animal. Have a discussion as to who has the biggest stuffed animal, how tall a student thinks her stuffed animal is, and anything else that will make her think about height. Next, have everyone measure the stuffed animal's height and write it down. Compare these measurements to what the student thought -- were the estimate close? If not, how far off was the estimate? This will also help make height more tangible.
  
  Split your students into groups and have students draw a bar graph, where each student has two bars, one of his animal's predicted height and another of his animal's actual height. Have the student present his findings to the class.
  
  

Let's Convert

• Give pairs of children decks of cards and set a measurement unit. You could start with distance, working from kilometers to meters. Next, tell the children that every card is worth its value, and face cards are 11, 12, and 13 (jack, queen, king).
  
  Have one child flip a card over. Whoever can convert from kilometers to meters first wins and gets to keep the card. Whoever has the most cards when the deck runs out wins the game. Before this happens, though, have the students routinely switch partners.
  
  As the class plays, have your students write down every win or loss as a tally on a table. When the card playing is done, have the students convert the tallies into actual numbers. Repeat the activity later in the year and have the students compare numbers from before with the current numbers. This will help students work on conversion skills and teach the value of comparing measurements over time.
  
  

Distance Comparisons

• Take your students on a walk distance you already know. It could be around a quarter mile.
  
  When the students return from the walk, ask students how long they think it was. Discuss this with the class, then give the class the answer (which you will know because the walk was preset).
  
  Next, have students think of a few different distances, such as from home to school. Find these distances in Google Maps, and write the distances down. Then, split the children into groups and find out how many "walks" there are in each distance. If a student lives a mile from school, for example, this is the same as going on four walks. Have each group turn in a sheet with the results written on it.