Measurement

Measurement Activities overview

Refer to Measurement Reference Card and Measurement Reference Card definitions to support units of measurement used for the suggested activities below.

Length

Measure a range of objects in and around your home based on their length or height.  Use a ruler, tape measure or sewing tape to measure using millimetres, centimetres and metres as appropriate.

Compare measurement of the lengths of objects using mathematical language of longer, shorter, bigger, smaller, greater, less than.

Mass/Weight

Measure a range of objects in and around your home based on their weight.  Use kitchen or bathroom scales, your hands to hold, weights to measure using milligrams, grams and kilograms as appropriate. 

Cooking is a great way to get children involved in measuring mass – make up your favourite cupcakes or smoothies for some fun.

Capacity

Measure a range of containers around the home like buckets, bowls, cups.  Use items such as water, rice, sand to measure how much each container holds.

Compare measurement of capacity using mathematical language of heavy, light, full, half-full, empty, more, less.

Set some home challenges to find the biggest or the smallest container that holds the most, to compare containers of similar size or shape.  Make predictions about how much a container can hold and see if your prediction was right.

Time

Measure a range of daily activities using time, for example, brushing your teeth, eating dinner, favourite show on TV.  Use a kitchen timer, clock face, stop-watch or mobile/iPad timers to measure seconds, minutes and hours. 

Compare measurement of time using mathematical language of longer, shorter, more, less, quicker/faster, slower.

Set some home challenges to do activities within a set time or to beat your best time.  Estimate and measure how long it will take to carry out day to day activities, cook dinner, walk around the house or drive to the shops.