Measurement - Math Unit

I can’t believe how long it has been since I last posted!! Life sure got in the way the last few weeks. Here is what was been keeping us busy in kindergarten…    

One of the biggest requirements of students teaching is completing what is called TPA (teacher practitioner assessment). In short, I have to develop and teach a five day math unit. I took a small breath of relief after writing the lesson plans for the unit and an even bigger breath after teaching it! My unit was on measurement and using non-standard units. The unit was a broad introduction to measuring for the students. I developed a variety of activities for the students that allowed them to do hands on learning throughout the unit. I also introduced one or two vocabulary words each day that students learned and used repeatedly during the lesson for that day.

Day 1
The first day I focused on taller and shorter than. Students were given an activity sheet with their picture on it. They needed to draw a picture of something that is shorter or taller than them. A sentence was at the top of their paper that read “A ____ is taller (or shorter) than ___.” In the first blank, students wrote what was taller or shorter than them. Students completed the sentence by writing their name on the second line. 

(I thought it was very smart for that this student drew a line from the top of their head to the side of their paper so they visually see that their picture was shorter than him.)

(Students were allowed to use phonetic spelling as long as they stretched the word out. This students wrote "maws" in an attempt to stretch out "mouse".)

Day 2
Stations were set up for students to rotate through. The first station was QR codes I developed. Using a paperclip, students measured the length or height of school supplies. First, students measured each item then checked their answers using an iPad and the QR code. 

Station two, focused on each students name. Each student measured the length of their name to practice measuring with a variety of objects.  

At the last station, the lesson and activity focused on ordering objects from longest to shortest. Students were given a bag of six or seven objects and asked to put them in order form longest to shortest. Then we rotated bags so each student was able to have lots of practice (there was a total of seven bags that each had different items for students to place in order).   

Day 3
“How long is a foot?” was the topic for day three of the unit. I read the story “How Big is a Foot?” by Rolf Myller to the class. This is a story about a king who wanted to build a bed for his wife’s birthday but after several tries, the measurements for the bed still were not right. So, the king’s apprentice must figure out how to build the right size bed. During and after the story, we discussed how the king’s foot could be a different size than the apprentice’s foot and how this affected the construction of the bed. 

Each student measured their own foot so we could compare the different size feet within our class. Students used a paperclip, lego, cubes, and an item of choice to measure their foot.  

Day 4
Today, students were able to use an actual ruler! Pictures of animals were hung around the classroom for students to measure using their ruler. We came back together as a class at the end and measured each picture together. This allowed students to check the measurements they recorded and also visually reinforce how to line up and read a ruler. 

(This is the recording sheet students used)

Day 5
The fifth and final day centered around assessing what the students had learned. As a class, we measured a variety of pictures of objects on the SMARTBoard using nonstandard units (such as a flower, crayon, pencil etc.). This allowed me to see which students were able to measure properly and who needed further one on one instruction.

As a quick check in written assessment, I gave the students the following assessment. The assessment was taken individually by students with no teacher help. I simply wanted to see what the students had learned about measuring. 

(This student added an extra box when measuring the first two pictures but correctly measured the last two pictures (interesting!) 

(This student gave the correct measurement for three of the questions but did not color the cubes in correctly to justify their answers.)