Measurement Unit Study

I wanted to share the basics of our Measurement unit study, feel free to use any of our ideas.  Some of our learning objectives are:  learning / reviewing place value, large number values (million +),  standard vs. non-standard measurement, and a healthy dose of probability/statistics.

First of all, here are the books that we are using:

• Moving Beyond the Page - Measurement unit (Concept 2, age 6-8)  This was actually the inspiration for studying measurement.  I love Moving Beyond the Page but with three children of varying ages, I have had to add to the unit so that all my children are engaged.
• Measurement Mania: Games and Activities that Make Math Easy and Fun - This book is awesome, we will be working through the whole first section this week - it includes fun measuring ideas such as body measurement, jump measurement and much, much more.  
• Measuring Size (Mathematics for Fun) - This one has great hands-on ideas for making measurement more concrete.
• If You Were an Inch or a Centimeter (Math Fun) - Fun and easy introduction to inches and centimeters, and why we use them.
• For Good Measure: The Ways We Say How Much, How Far, How Heavy, How Big, How Old - I'm having my oldest read this one and then share her findings with her younger siblings.  Really neat book.
• Science Project About Methods of Measuring (Science Projects) - Perfect for tying science into our curriculum and lots of great projects.
• The Librarian Who Measured the Earth - this is my read-aloud for this week for everyone to listen to - it pulls history into our study, yeah!
• Me and the Measure of Things - perfect book for my youngest (and my middler) for introducing measurement conversions, you know 12 inches = 1 foot.  I might even make a game based on this book.
• Millions to Measure - another great read for discussing measurement conversions, also covers some history of measurement terms.  Pretty interesting, even for the teacher. :)
• Tell Me How Far It Is (Whiz Kids) - Talks about distance - nice for younger children.
• How Big Is A Million? (Picture Books) - I still think this is the cutest book ever, but my kids weren't too thrilled.  Go figure!

And some of the fun things we are going to do:

Estimate how many pennies fill up a 1/3 cup, 1/2 cup and 1 cup.
Estimate how many m&ms fill up a 1/3 c, 1/2 c and 1 c measure.  (then eat m&m's, yummy)
Play with place value with manipulative blocks and craft supplies.
Measure our feet to see why the foot became the "standard" measure.

Measure, measure, measure -everything and anything.
Enjoy math centers that teach addition, subtraction and fraction practice.
Do a blind-draw of skittles, then tally a bag of skittles to see if our blind draw was an accurate sampling.  Create a variety of graphs related to our Skittles tallies.  (then eat Skittles, yum)
Make a math game that helps us remember our measurement conversions.

I'll share more soon - I need to go measure something.