Maths Summer EDventure: Measuring at home
In this activity, you will explore the measurement of things that you find around your home, and things that you come across while you are out and about.
Learning objectives
You will convert from one type of measurement to another to discover things like:
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- Just how many grams of chocolate are there in a 2 kg bar?
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- How many mm long are your feet!
Year 5 maths learning objectives
To convert between different units of metric measure [for example, kilometre and metre; centimetre and metre; centimetre and millimetre; gram and kilogram; litre and millilitre]
Year 6 maths learning objectives
To use, read, write and convert between standard units, converting measurements of length, mass, volume and time from a smaller unit of measure to a larger unit, and vice versa, using decimal notation to up to 3 decimal places
Let's get started!
Activty 1
While at home and out and about, find different things that you can measure and convert. Here are some ideas of things to do, but you’ll probably have ideas of your own too!
1.Use a ruler to measure how many cm long 10 things in your home or garden are. List them in order from shortest to longest.
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Convert each of the measures into mm.
Challenge: convert to m and then km.
Top tip: you will be working with decimal numbers in the challenge.
2. Use a map, or the Internet to find out how many km it is from your home to a favourite place you have visited, or would like to visit.
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Convert from km to metres.
Challenge: Can you convert to cm and finally mm.
For fun: Test your family and friends to see it they can guess the distance in mms
3. Count up how many hours you spend doing an activity over the course of a week – playing with friends, watching TV, reading etc.
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Work out how many minutes you have spent doing your chosen thing.
Challenge: Can you calculate the time in seconds too?
4. Keep a timetable of everything you do in a day (24 hours).
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How many minutes do you do each thing for?
Challenge: How many seconds does each thing take?
5. Investigate how many different units of measure you can find in the supermarket (or in your kitchen cupboards)
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Which units are used for solid l and which for liquids?
Challenge: Can you convert all the solids to grams and all the liquids to millilitres?
Top Tip: You may find some units of measure you’ve not seen before - see teacher top tip 1
6. Measure out 1 metre on the floor. How many footsteps (heel to toe) is this?
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How many footsteps would it take to walk 1 km?
Challenge: Try this activity with someone else’s foot measurement.
7. Measure the perimeter (the distance around the edge) of a room in your home in cm.
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Draw the outline of the room in mms – does the size surprise you?
Challenge: measure all of the furniture and add it to your picture (a bird’s eye view).
Super challenge: Can you do your whole house?
8. Make a game of ‘Pairs’ where the winner finds the most equivalent measures.
Example: 3 km and 3,000 m or 0.5 l and 500 ml.
Teacher Tip 1:
Use the following information to help you convert correctly:
10 mm = 1 cm
100 cm = 1 m
1,000 m = 1 km
1,000 gm = 1 kg
1,000 ml = 1 L
60 seconds = 1 minute
60 minutes = 1 hour
24 hours = 1 day
Remember: The opposite will also be true. Example: 1 day = 24hours, 1 cm = 10mm
You might also find these useful:
1 ounce = 28.35 gms
2.2.lbs = 1kg
1 pint = 0.57L
Teacher Tip 2:
When converting measures, you often need to multiply or divide by 10, 100 or 1,000
Remember:
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- When multiplying by 10, all digits move one place to the left
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- When multiplying by 100, all digits move two places to the left
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- When multiplying by 1,000, all digits move three places to the left
(Don’t forget to use a 0 as a place holder)
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- When dividing by 10, all digits move one place to the right
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- When dividing by 100, all digits move two places to the right
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- When dividing by 1,000, all digits move three places to the right
(The decimal place does not move)
Teacher Tip 3:
Work logically, and a step at a time if you are not sure what to do.
When converting some units of measure, you might need to use decimal numbers.
Remember to put a decimal place if you need one!
Example:
60cm = 0.6m (60 ÷ 100 = 0.6)
450 cm = 0.0045 km (450 ÷ 100,000)
When converting between hours and minutes, you will be x or ÷ by 60
Use your knowledge of the 6 times tables to help
So,
60 seconds in I minute
60 minutes in I hour
Therefore, there are 3,600 seconds in an hour (60 x 60)
How many seconds in one whole day (24 hours)?
Beat the summer brain drain
Keep learning about measurement with our free maths activities for years 5 and 6:
