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Measures
Objectives
To measure using decimetre strips
Resources
Table or sofa | 1cm cubes | 📄 Decimetre strips (approx. 15) | String | 📄 Measurement chart
Vocabulary
measure | decimetre | long(er) | short(er) | length | width | just over | just under
Today's Lesson
What to Get Ready
Print and cut out the 📄 Decimetre strips.
Introduction
Look at a nearby table that you can walk around easily.
Discuss how we might measure its length. Pass some 1cm cubes to your student.
Show them a decimetre strip that you have cut out.
Say, ‘This is a decimetre. It is ten centimetres.’ Prove this by comparing ten 1cm cubes alongside a dm strip.
Now look at several strips. Point out that decimetres (ten centimetres) are useful units for measuring things.
Ask, ‘How many decimetres long is the table/sofa?’
Encourage your student to estimate the length first. Write some of their estimates down on paper.
Then lay decimetre strips along the length of the table and work out how long it is.
Discuss what happens if it is not an exact number. Discuss that we need to bring in thinking of a ‘half’ here.
Record its length in decimetres, using halves if needed. For example, ‘The table is 13½ decimetres long.’
Main Activity
Challenge your student to measure other household objects using the decimetre strips. Expect them to lay the strips out end to end accurately, not overlapping, and not leaving gaps between them.
Show them that an object’s length is the longest side of an object, or how long it is from top to bottom or end to end. Show them that an object’s width is how wide it is from side to side.
It is an important skill to measure accurately, so emphasise the need to take care and time over this task.
Remind your student that when an object is longer than a whole number of decimetre strips, we should use language such as, for example, ‘just a bit longer than 10 and a ½’ or, ‘just a bit less than 5 and a ½’.
Ask them to record the measurements on the 📄 Measurement chart sheet.