Over the last few days we have been exploring measurement as a system in maths. A provocation was set up for students to start their brains thinking about how we figure out the size of things.
On Monday, a square was drawn on the ground in chalk and the students were given the very minimal question ‘How big is this square?’. The teachers were hoping to gauge their understanding on how they may go about discovering the size of the square and what tools they may use to find an answer. Paper tape measures, metre rulers, unifix blocks and popsicle sticks were quietly put next to them – and we let them go! Once the students worked out their answer, they came and let the teacher know and we recorded their ideas down. Below are some pictures and comments from the students.
We repeated a similar activity today (Wednesday). We drew two shapes – a square and an irregular shape on the ground and asked the children to measure around the shape.
The next step in the learning process will be measuring length with informal and formal units.