Week 8

Measurement
1. Synthesis of BIG Ideas

To me, measurement was simply measuring an object. Post completing activities and reviewing
lectures and tutorials, I have understood that measurement is counting units to describe an attribute
e.g. counting cms or minutes or litres etc. As well as this, I have learnt that measurement can relate
to many other KLAs including: Art, History, Science and Geography.
Teaching sequence for measurement:
Step 1: Identify the attribute (concept). The attribute must be understood before measuring.
Step 2: choose an appropriate unit of measurement.
(Arbitrary units e.g. hand span and standardised units involve objects/technology e.g. ruler: cm, mm)
Step 3: Measure the object using the chosen unit.
Step 4: Report the number of units how many? Data represented using pictures, numbers, and
graphs.
2. Concepts, Skills & Strategies

Tucker, Boggan & Harper (2010) encourages teachers to use literature to teach the concepts of
length, perimeter, area and volume and provide students with real life objects to manipulate and
explore with to be able to understand these aspects. This is vital to the learning process of
measurement and will allow children to apply specific skills and strategies.
We use measurement in everyday life e.g. Cooking, telling time, time tables for public transport,
money, distance of travel etc.
-
The concept of measurement is that to measure anything we need to count units.

Concepts and counting units relate to length, area, time, volume, temperature etc.
Children need to know and understand the concepts, skills and strategies related to these.
Using a mathematical formula to determine the area of a square is a skill.
Strategies to obtain the answer: how we use the formula to work out the answer of the area
of the square.
(Jamieson-Proctor, 2016)
3. Misconceptions
A common misconception is that children tend to think that a larger object weighs more. To
avoid this misconception, teachers should teach children to use the appropriate
mathematical language (Harris, 2000).
Activities that can be done to remediate this misconception:
-
Provide the students with plenty of examples using familiar objects (language model)
e.g. toys, bricks, books etc. to show that larger objects do not necessarily weigh
more than smaller objects.
4. ACARA Links
5. Resources & Ideas

The two resources below are useful for students when learning about measurement as they
introduce the concept as well as skills to process the idea and compares and helps with
concept of different measurements.
The first YouTube video is a great resource for teachers to use to allow students to grasp the
concept of measurement and then apply skills and strategies. I used this YouTube video
myself in a classroom when introducing the topic of measurement and I am sharing it as I
received good feedback from the students about it and found it useful to refer back to in my
teachings.
https://youtu.be/djTNUp4XIRo
This resource is great to use either as an introduction to the unit measurement, in the body
or towards the end of the unit of measurement to test students knowledge.
http://www.education.com/activity/measurement/
6. Synthesis of textbook
-
Measurement is process where a number is assigned to an attribute of an object/event.

Measurable attributes considered in primary years: length, capacity, weight/mass, area,
volume, time and temperature.
To help children understand the attribute, compare two objects on that attribute.
In order for children to understand what they are measuring they first need to know what
attribute they are measuring.
Perceptual comparison of lengths: to compare lengths of physical objects perceptually
Direct comparison of length: to compare lengths of physical objects directly
Indirect comparison of length: to compare two objects on length indirectly
Volume:
Children tend to think that a larger object weighs more
Children need to learn that to find which is heavier, they need to measure
Time:
The ordinary dial clock is one of the most complicated instruments to read and confuses
children. Skills relating to reading the clock are developed over a long period of time.
Children identify the following in different orders: the hour hand, minute hand and the way
they move, orally tell time by the hour, count by 5s to tell the in the nearest 5 minutes,
write the time in digital notation, match the tome on a digital clock to an analogue clock.
Conversions:
To change one unit of measurement from another, children must know the relation between
the two units.
Estimating measurements:
Estimating the mental process of arriving at a measurement without the aid of measuring
instruments. Estimating helps reinforce the size of units and relationships between them.
Two main types of estimation- the attribute and object are names and measurement
unknown and measurement is known and object is to be selected.
(Reys et al., 2012)

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Measurement

1. Synthesis of BIG Ideas

2. Concepts, Skills & Strategies

The concept of measurement is that to measure anything we need to count units.

5. Resources & Ideas

Measurement is process where a number is assigned to an attribute of an object/event.

(Reys et al., 2012)

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