This lesson is to help students work in small groups or pairs to find items around the classroom to measure in non-standard and then standard units of measurement.  It helps focusing on the unit of measurement, organizing a ruler, and how to continue measuring in the case it is longer than a ruler.Materials:Attached Measuremnt SheetInchwormsPaperclipsInch RulersCentimeter Rulers Lesson:I begin by handing out the measurement actiivty sheet.  I get my students into small groups or parnters.  They then choose three items in the room they woudl like to measure.  You could brainstorm as a class a variety of items they could measure before hand to better control what the students are measuring.  I begin the first day having students write the item or drawing it.  They then begin to measure with paper clips and then do it again with inch worms.  We discuss what the answers are and if there are any outliers, why this may be.  If time allows, we then bring in our inch rulers.  The groups discuss how to measure if they run out of their ruler.  They then measure with inches and centimeter rulers, keeping track of the data.  We reconveine as a class to record and collect the data found; searching for any outliers again.  In the end, we review the importance of measurement, why using standard vs. non-standard units are beneficial and some basic "rules" to follow when measuring.

Students visit second- and fourth-grade classes to measure the heights of older students using large building blocks as a non-standard unit of measure. They also measure adults in the school community. Results are displayed in age-appropriate bar graphs (paper cut-outs of miniature building blocks glued on paper to form bar graphs) enabling a comparison of the heights of different age groups. The activities that comprise this activity help students develop the concepts and vocabulary to describe, in a non-ambiguous way, how heights change as children age. This introduction to graphing provides an important foundation for creating and interpreting graphs in future years.

Kindergartners measure each other's height using large building blocks, then visit a 2nd and a 4th grade class to measure those students. They can also measure adults in the school community. Results are displayed in age-appropriate bar graphs (paper cut-outs of miniature building blocks glued on paper to form a bar graph) comparing the different age groups. The activities that comprise this lesson help students develop the concepts and vocabulary to describe, in a non-ambiguous way, how height changes as children get older. The introduction to graphing provides an important foundation for both creating and interpreting graphs in future years.

Students plant sunflower seeds in plastic cups, and once germinated, expose them to varying light or soil moisture conditions. They measure growth of the seedlings every few days using non-standard measurement (inch cubes). After a few weeks, they compare the growth of plants exposed to the different conditions and make bar comparative graphs, which they analyze to draw conclusions about the needs of plants.

This is a great resource for exploring standard vs. non-standard units of measurement.  Students will explore, either in whole group, or in small groups the benefits of using non-standard measurements and standard.You can start this lesson out with a great participation from your own classroom.  Have a strip going down your classroom in a line.  (I like to use painters tape)  I then choose a student from the class.  We take their shoe and my shoe.  Before walking along the line, we discuss how we think we should measure with this non-standard unit of measure.   Kids will usually express having the shoe touch toe to heel.  The class then counts the students feet and record on the board.  The class then counts the teachers amount of shoes.  We discuss why this took more.  Afterwards, we then start to talk about using a ruler.  How is this different than a shoe?  Why is more useful?  These are posed to the class and open to discuss.  You want to surface that the ruler never changes no matter the person.  We then use the ruler to measure the same strip and compare to the shoe findings.  This is a great introduction to non-standard and standard unit of measurement.  I use this before I begin using centimeter cubes or inch units of measurement to show the difference between standard and non-standard units of measurement.