Checking our Estimates

During Math Workshop, we have been working on measuring with nonstandard objects.
We measured length with objects like popsicle sticks...

Donovan and Briar measure the length of the carpet with popsicle sticks.

...and we measured weight with objects like cubes...

Brandon and Logan measure the weight of owl pellets with cubes.

...and now we are even coming up with things to measure on our own!

Emari measures the length of an owl skull with inchworm cubes.

Before we measure, we always try to estimate!

This week we read the book How Big is a Foot? by Rolf Myller.  The story was about a King who has a special bed made for his Queen's birthday.  The King measured out how tall and wide he needed the bed by using his feet.  By the time the carpenter's tiny apprentice made the bed, measuring with his tiny feet, the bed did not fit the Queen!

We found out how many teacher steps it took to measure the jumprope:

We had a few students estimate and measure the jumprope with their feet, and then we all made estimates for how many of our footsteps it would take to measure the jumprope.

Finally, we checked our estimates by actually measuring the jumprope with our footsteps.

When we had trouble balancing, we always had a friend nearby to help!

We had some great and reasonable estimates!