Learning about Length and Measurement
From an early age, your child is taught about length and measurement in the classroom. You can share experiences in your home to help improve their numeracy skills. Explain to your child that the length of something is the distance between two points.
You and your child can measure the length of objects using different items as measuring units e.g. hands, fingers, feet, straws, paperclips, ice cream sticks or even pencils. Here are a few ways you can explore length with your child:
- during daily activities, take the opportunity to ask your child to compare lengths of different objects, or line up objects, such as shoes, from longest to shortest.
- remember to keep asking questions using language such as ‘which object is shorter, longer, lower, wider or thicker ?’
- encourage your child to compare the heights of people in your family or objects in your home. You and your child could create a height chart and record the height of visitors and friends and discuss your findings.
- provide experiences and opportunities for your child to estimate length and get them to verify their estimations.
- as your child learns about metres and other standard units of measuring such as centimetres, you can encourage discussion on estimating the lengths of various objects.
If you would like more information to assist your child in understanding length and measurement as well as improving his/her literacy and numeracy skills, visit www.education.qld.gov.au/parents/map/
