What's a cuter way to begin "standard units of measurement" than to start with the book Inch by Inch?! Yes, I know this Leo Lionni book really has nothing to do with math, but it's so cute, and it's a book that most of my kiddos have already read by the time they hit 2nd grade.
After we finish reading, we chat about "standard" units of measurement. This is such an important conversation to have, and the students always amaze me with their depth of knowledge and reasoning skills. They can quickly figure out why it's important to have standard units and what might happen if we didn't. (Partial credit is also due to the book How Big is a Foot? by Rolf Myller. If you haven't read it or shared it with your class, I HIGHLY suggest you do so!)
Finally, I give my students a small 1" x 1" square piece of paper to draw their own "inchworm" in! Then we use these little guys to measure objects around our room.
Unlike with our shoes, from the "non-standard" units of measurement activity, in this activity, most of the class should get close to the same answers for each item. It's a fun way to begin exploring "standard" units such as the inch!
Want to share this fun activity with your class? Click this link for a great set of lots of blackline masters, the first of which is a page of one inch graph paper that you can use for the one inch squares!
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