Kinesthetic Measuring Lesson Plan
Multidisciplinary Activities Help Elementary Students Calculate
Students learn the importance of standard measurements with hands-on, kinesthetic activities that put size into perspective.
A King's Foot
When King Henry III standardized English measurements in the 13th century, he clearly had no idea that students hundreds of years later would curse his odd measurement choices. Did the King have six fingers on each hand when he ignored base ten in favor of a foot made up of twelve inches? How could he possibly have decided that 5,280 feet would equal a mile?
Some accounts claim that King Henry III's bare foot was the chosen length of the first standardized foot and that twelve of his royal thumb lengths, or inches, equaled the length of one of his feet. Although the idea of measuring with a king's foot did not originate in England (the ancient Sumerians are owed that honor), it is likely that today's twelve inch rulers would have fit inside the English monarch's footwear.
Introducing Measurement
Begin by reading and discussing children's books that introduce standard measurement. Some engaging titles include:
- How Big is a Foot by Rolf Myller (Random House Children's Books, 1991)
- Inchworm and a Half by Elinor J. Pinczes (Houghton Mifflin, 2003)
- Measuring Penny by Loreen Leedy (Henry Holt & Co., 2000)
- Millions to Measure by David M. Schwartz (Harper Collins, 2006)
- Tell Me How Far It Is by Shirley Willis (Scholastic, 2000)
Brainstorm situations when it might be necessary to have a standard measurement (Examples: purchasing anchor rope for a boat, putting together a recipe, purchasing produce, making home repairs, sewing, determining the appropriate amount of medication, etc.).
Kinesthetic Group Math Activity
Content Areas: measurement, estimating, graphing
Materials: newspaper rolls or bulletin board paper, card stock, pencils
- Break students into small groups of four or five.
- One by one, students in each group will stretch out on a large piece of paper while the other group members trace them.
- Next, individual students will trace their own bare foot on a piece of cardstock and then cut out the image.
- Ask students to measure their own traced silhouette with their own "foot" and then record measurements for the entire group (Example: Susie = 7 feet, Mark = 6 3/4 feet, Maddy = 7 1/2 feet, John = 7 1/4 feet, Elinor = 8 feet), and then list the group members by height using the results of the individual measurements. Most likely, students will begin to protest the results since it would be unlikely that the results would be accurate. Encourage students to explain why the measurements are inaccurate (the foot measures used weren't the same).
- Now have individual students take turns measuring each group members' silhouette using only their own footprint. Again, have each student record the answers and then list the group members by height.
- Once all group members have measured and listed the group members by height, ask students to compare their list results. Each group members list should now be accurate and identical to the other group members'. Ask students to explain why their lists are the same even though they each used different "feet." Also, ask students explain why the list results now accurately reflect the size differences of the group members (each student foot length remained constant; so long as the same size foot was used to measure all of the silhouettes in a group, the size comparisons would be accurate).
For an extension of this activity, have students create graphs of their results. They may want to use cut-out feet to create bar graphs.
