Mathematics
Term 1 Week 9 Length
Activities to support the strategy
Students use direct and indirect comparisons to decide which is longer, and explain their reasoning using everyday language (ACMMG006)
Identify the attribute of ‘length’ as the measure of an object from end to end
Make and sort long and short constructions from concrete materials
Important Language
length, end, end-to-end, side-by-side, long, longer than, longest, short, shorter than, shortest, high, higher than, highest, tall, taller than, tallest, low, lower than, lowest, the same as, near, nearer, far, further, close, closer, wide, narrow, thick, thin
Big Picture Idea:
Describe and compare length
Activities that teach length:
Lesson 1: Explore the language of length by drawing and writing words used to describe size. Draw pictures to match size words eg: big dog, small dog, wide ribbon, narrow ribbon, short tree, tall tree etc
Lesson 2: Continue to develop the language of length. Discuss the words ‘wide’, ‘narrow’, ‘thick’, ‘thin’. Find thick and thin trees in your garden. Draw the thick and thin trees.
Lesson 3: What is length? Discuss the words ‘long’, ‘longer than’, ‘longest’, ‘short, shorter than’, ‘shortest’.
Draw a short snake and a long snake. Find a short pencil and a long pencil. Draw a long line of people and a short line of people.
Lesson 4: Comparing lengths. Find a ruler and a pencil. Put them beside each other and discuss the statement “A ruler is longer than a pencil.” Find items around the house that are longer than the pencil. Draw them. Find items that are shorter than the pencil draw them. Find items that are ‘about the same length’ as the pencil. Draw them. Line the items up from shortest to longest.
Lesson 5: Comparing lengths: Collect some twigs and put them in order from shortest to longest. Make the two caterpillars in the resource booklet and compare to find which is longer.