How tall are we?

A month into our Kindergarten Unit of Inquiry ‘Who We Are,’ our children are learning about their physical characteristics. The other day, we attempted measuring our heights using various non-standard measuring tools.

The activity began with a discussion about height — the concept and it’s meaning. What are we measuring when we measure height? One of the kids said height is ‘how tall we are’ and that provided our cue into comparisons. As children compared heights amongst themselves we incorporated vocabulary words such as taller, shorter, compare, measure, scale, ruler etc.

We then paired them up in a Measure Your Partner activity where they used handprints and footprints as measuring tools. They also recorded their heights on the classroom wall using jute strings which turned out to be quite a popular measuring activity! It was fun learning how comparing lengths of string required us to line them up at one end or the measurement would be inaccurate. We would encourage parents to use different sized non-standard tools around the house to measure items. Some suggestions are blocks, popsicle sticks, paper clips etc. This can help build student schemas about size, proportion and conversions.