A few weeks ago I blogged about the stick stacking maths challenge undertaken by a Primary 4 class. The work on measurement and other outdoor activities using sticks has continued.
Firstly the children were asked to estimate the height of the buildings and other structures around them. It was interesting to observe their ways of finding out these things. Unlike many older schools, this building has no bricks which can be measured and counted.
I was also intrigued with the impromptu use of props to aid measurements taken. For example in the photo below, the girl used her shoe to make the distance required to be measured.
Later on, she was also taking quite an enterprising approach to measuring the height of the lamp post…
The activity moved into using perspective to keep a straight line and to measure the height of different objects. In the photo below, the child is looking down her arm to guide her partner into laying the sticks out in a straight line. Prior to that, the groups measuring the length of the slope were struggling to keep the sticks straight.
During the review at the end of the session, we asked the children what other things would be interesting to measure. Many were interested in measuring themselves. Other had a variety of ideas and one child was keen on the idea of measuring a gull… of which many rather like visiting the school.
Do you have any advice about measuring activities outside? The children were using sticks cut to one metre for this activity which meant that estimation work was much easier.
