Today I am sharing two measurement math centre
activities I have been doing with my Pre Primary class
(5 year olds). I have been utilising them as part of our
small group work stations and sometimes rotational
maths centres.
The aim of these activities is for children to compare
the lengths of two (or more) objects using the language
associated with measuring length such as shorter, taller,
tallest, shortest, etc. Children have the opportunity to
compare objects directly by placing one object against
another to determine which is longer.
I like to use small group work or centre activities in my
classroom to consolidate the learning completed during
mat sessions or whole class tasks. It provides children
with the opportunity for peer to peer learning in a
hands-on context.
The Printable Measurement Activity Mats used in
this post are available for purchase in my online shop.
What you will need?
Children can measure and compare the lengths of
several different items. I have changed our items when
using our printable measurement mats to keep the
interest and provide a variety of different tools. You can
use different length tools such as straws, wool (yarn),
leaves or string. Another idea is to make a basket of
mixed up items that are not the same for children to
compare and order from shortest to tallest. The ideas are
endless!
The Measurement Mats come in a set of 8 pages. 4
pages measure from shortest to tallest and the other 4
pages measure tallest to shortest. The mats are a mix of
multi-cultural children, with 2 boys and 2 girls. The
Measurement Mats clearly shows a starting point for
measuring the different tools.
Available in 2 fonts:
1. Printable Measurement Activity Mats
STANDARD PRINT
2. Printable Measurement Activity Mats
CURSIVE PRINT (shown in the photos in this
post)
In other activities we have compared the height of 3
friends and drew a picture labelling and writing our
friends names. We have also compared the length of 3
friend’s shoes. I have planned this week to add
measuring jumping frogs to our group activities.
The items shown in the picture are called Measuring
Worms by Learning Resources and I purchased mine
from here .
There are 72 in a set and each colour is available in 4
lengths. This is great for those children who are still
grasping the concept and need less items to compare
and measure.
I also made up small bags of coloured wool with
different lengths. Children laid these out on the table to
see and compare the different lengths before arranging
them from shortest to tallest or tallest to shortest on the
mats.
You could also use play dough, different length pencils,
twigs, leaves or different length straws.
Using a number line is also another great way to
provide children with a starting point to compare the
length of different objects. For some of my children 10
sticks were too much but a great challenge for stronger
students. I also made bags up a 5 different length sticks
for children to compare and arrange from tallest to
shortest. When they had finished they swapped bags
and tried a set of different lengths and this time
arranged them from shortest to tallest. Some children
arranged their sticks from counting down from 10 along
the number line.
Match the Dots Printables for Alphabet Letters, Numbers
and Shapes is a great activity for fine motor development,
control and concentration. It is also a great way to introduce
children to learning letters, numbers and shapes.
This activity involves placing tokens, gem stones, buttons or
pompoms onto the circles inside the shape of the letters,
numbers and shapes. Children become familiar and begin
recognise the shape of letters, numbers and two-dimensional
shapes.
What you will need?
These printables can be used with a number of manipulatives
such as buttons, transparent tokens, pompoms and gem
stones. Other ideas may include, sticker dots, dot pens or play
dough rolled into small balls. We have laminated our
templates for durability so they can be re-used again.
To set up this invitation to play, we place one or two
templates on a tray with a basket (container) of one of the
manipulatives pictured above, such as pompoms for the
shapes. You may like to put a number of tokens out in
separate containers to provide a choice.
Alphabet Letters A-Z
Depending on the age and ability of the child, I would
suggest placing out only one or two letters at a time when
setting up this invitation to play. 26 letters would be
overwhelming for young children and they may lose interest
in the activity quickly.
Some Ideas
Talk about the letter name and what sound the letter
makes.
Talk about some words that begin with that letter
and point to objects in the room beginning with the
sound.
Create patterns with the tokens.
Match the coloured dots to the coloured tokens.
Click here to download and print A-Z Alphabet
Letters: Printable Alphabet Letters A to Z Templates
Numbers and Counting
The Match the Dots Number Templates consist of numbers 0
to 9 and also show the value of that number providing an
opportunity for children to count out loud.
Some Ideas:
Talk about the numbers and practice drawing it by
tracing over the number with your finger.
Look for objects in the room and count how many.
For example, when completing number four, count
four ‘lights’ in the room.
Create patterns with the tokens.
Match the coloured dots to the coloured tokens.
Click here to download and print 0-9 Numbers: Printable
Numbers Templates
Shapes
The Shapes Templates have been created to also encrouage
the learning of colours, such as the circle has green dots and
we provided green pompoms to match. Children will search
and sort for the matching colour pompom to the pictured
shape on the template.
The printable includes circle, triangle, rectangle, square, kite,
heart, star and oval.
Letter recognition
Oral language development – hearing the sound and
saying it out loud.
Development of fine motor skills
Eye & hand coordination – watching and doing and
coordinating these actions.
Sensory- Development of the sense of touch.
Feeling and manipulating objects.
Learning alphabet letter name and letter sounds.
Spatial awareness
Creativity
Identify and recognise Colours
Mathematical concepts, measurement, shape and
patterns
The same activity again using different manipulative
tools. Again these Measuring Worms are good for those
children who are still grasping the concept and need
less items to compare and measure.