Saturday, February 12, 2011

Measurement with Jack and the Beanstalk- part 2

             I posted a few days ago about how I used Jack and the Beanstalk to get a better understanding of the students' background knowledge of measurement.  Keeping with the Jack and the Beanstalk theme, the students worked in groups to create a giant using non-standard units of measure, their feet.  Each group was responsible for making a different body part for the giant.  Since each group used a different student's feet to measure, the body parts came out different lengths.
Marking the starting point.



Measuring in "feet"
Drawing the body parts.
           Before we put the parts all together, we compared the 2 arms to each other and the 2 legs to each other.  Students who were not in the arm groups measured the arms with their feet, and, of course, they came up with different measurements.
     By the end of the discussion we had come to the conclusion that the parts were all different sizes because they were all measured with different feet.  If we want the parts to be the same length, we have to measure them with "the same feet," as one student said.

   This is absolutely one of my favorite lessons!  Coming up next, making a giant with "the same feet."  :)

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