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Use slippers to teach your child about measuring.

What You Need:



• Paper
• Pencil
• A pair of slippers

What To Do:


1. Explain to your child that “measuring” is a way of comparing the size of an object to a standard. We commonly use inches, feet, meters, or miles as standards of measurement. But we could actually use any familiar object as a standard to compare the size of one thing to another. In this activity, you will use a rubber slipper as a standard of measurement.
2. Have a family member lie down on the floor.
3. Ask your child to guess how many slippers it will take to measure the person from head to toe.
4. Help her confirm her guess by “walking” the two slippers along side of the person on the floor, making sure that the slippers touch from end to end. Count each time you place a slipper down and keep a tally.
5. Show your child that tally marks can help keep track of how many slippers long the person is. Have her make a mark on a sheet of paper each time the slipper is used. Count the total number of tally marks and have her complete the following sentence: “We measured (person’s name) and he/she is (how many) slippers long.”
6. Measure other people in the family, asking your child to guess who will be the most slippers long or the least. Measure your child and have her compare her measurement to other family members. Ask her questions such as “Who is taller, you or Halm?ni (Grandfather)?
7. Measure objects, such as a table or a book. Make a list of what you measured and how many slippers wide/long each object is.
8. Discuss when measuring is necessary. For example, if your family wants to put a bookcase in her bedroom, someone would first need to measure the area to find out what size bookcase would fit.

VARIATION:
Trace your child’s handprint on a piece of paper and cut it out. Have her use her handprint to measure the distance between two items or the size of objects.

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