I am a student teacher and I need some extra help from teachers that have ideas for measurement lesson plans and/or activities. I actually need 5-7 lessons with re-teach and extension activities, plus assessments. The lessons need to fall under any of these indicators for second grade:
1. Compare objects using nonstandard units
2. Determine perimeter using nonstandard units
3. Measure length using inches/feet

If you have anything that will help me that would be awesome!!!
Thanks a ton!

[ejs]

One activity that I do for measurement is to have the students measure objects in the classroom. I set up stations and the students have to go around the classroom to measure each of the assigned object. I also do a project that involves students designing what their "dream" classroom would look like on giant graph paper. The have to decide how big their room will be and what they will have in it. The students have to set up a scale to show how big each thing that they have in their classroom is and how much space it will take up. The students seem to enjoy this activity and get very creative - I once had a student put a water slide in their classroom!!! Hope this helps give you some ideas! I work with older student so I don't know if this activity would be good for second graders or maybe could be modified to meet their needs. Hope this helps give you some ideas!

When attempting to teach measurement using nonstandard units, try giving each student a hershey bar and having them use it as a ruler. Hershey bars work because they are already divided into parts of a whole (if they need to know 1/4 of an inch, etc). Then have them measure things around the classroom, such as the perimiter of their desk using the chocolate bar as a ruler. We just started measurement in my classroom. It is my first year teaching 5th grade. I hope to use this method during this unit. It sounded fun and yummy. If you use this, let me know how it works

[JudyW]

When I taught 5th grade I used pattern blocks to introduce perimeter. I gave the children a predetermined set of blocks. They arranged these blocks into a figure and then counted the edges to find the perimeter. Some blocks have sides that count as 2 unites. Be sure to play with them yourself before hand so you can anticipate any problems the children might have. The overhead projector and overhead pattern blocks works great for demonstration purposes.

For measurement I use Hershey's Kisses as a "tool" for them to weigh other objects such as paper clips, erasers, cm.cubes, etc. Using a pan balance the students discover that one kiss weighs 5 grams. They then use this information to weigh other objects using the kisses. Ex: A pencil eraser may weigh 2 kisses OR 10 grams. How many cm. cubes AND kisses does it take to measure the mass of a small calculator? etc. Kids really enjoy the discovery of this lesson and the ability to "weigh" objects in non standard weights. After the concept of weight is established, the kids are ready to eat their treats and move on to using the standard weights of grams, kilograms, pounds, ounces, etc. The students NEVER forget the weight of a Hershey Kiss and apply this knowledge to estimating the weight/mass of other objects.

I do this same sort of method with my pre k students, but instead of using whole hershey bars i use the miniture bars and they practice aligning the bar up to the item that they are measuring, then they count how many hershey bars it took to equal the item they are measuring.