Learning to Measure

Isn’t it always the way; Jack gets some lovely and thoughtful gifts for christmas and the thing he loves the most is that little green frog measuring tape.

My mum picked it up on an impulse when she was fabric shopping. Well, Jack has been busily measuring anything and anyone who will stand still long enough. He has developed a rather unique way of telling us how tall we are though.

He doesn’t actually look at the numbers, instead, Jack pulls out the tape, holds it against us and then tells us the time. So, he’ll say, ‘Mummy, you’re twenty past three.’ or ‘Daddy, you’re ten past four.’

I’m not quite sure where this came from, and while rather adorable, I thought, since he is interested in measuring so much, I may as well make the most of it and set up an activity for him to learn to measure.

We had everything on hand, it was just a matter of gathering it all together. Jack is a rather prolific drawer/writer and so I included a little notebook for him to record the measurements as well as the sandpaper letters to practise the correct form.

Each one of those green cylinders are identical except for their height (they came from another game we have) and so this was a good place to start. Jack could arrange them in height order and then using his measuring tape, measure each cylinder and write the number in his notebook.

This really helped him to understand height and measuring; the idea that things are different lengths and these lengths are represented by the numbers on his tape.

After a few practices, Jack was keen to measure the other items on the tray….and then everything around the house. Recording as he went.

Jack knows 1-10, most of 11-20 when prompted and then needs help to remember twenty + number, thirty + number and so on. As it turns out, this funny frog measuring tape, this impulse buy, has really helped Jack understand not only the concept of length but also counting and writing and recording. Thanks Mum.

And this little measuring tape is the perfect size for little pockets so it often finds its way on trips with us where Jack can measure the milk carton at the supermarket or more commonly these days, the fire extinguishers at the shopping centres.