Tag: measurement

How many scoops do I need?

In this 3-act activity, students need to invent a different way to measure the powdered chocolate than what the instructions dictate. How many 1/4th teaspoonsfuls of powder = 2 teaspoons? How many 1/8th teaspoons = 2 teaspoons? General rule?

Guacamole for Cinco de Mayo

This activity involves recipe analysis, pricing, and comparison. Students gather the ingredients for a famous recipe and analyze how much it would cost to make it at home versus buying it at the restaurant.

How old are you?

We usually give our ages in years, but that isn’t very precise is it?  In this activity students find their age in days, hours and minutes.  First students take two minutes to estimate their age in days, hours and minutes.…

Penny Wars anew

Students judge from apparent diameters and penny heights, which jar has the most money. Mrs. Mercado had 3 pictures of scales with two jars on each balance. That is another great puzzle.

Vampire Bats

 Ooooo. Scary!  This is a slightly didactic activity on vampire bats.  We’ve given lots of interesting metric and customary unit facts and asked students to relate those sizes to more familiar objects.  Simply enjoy the season with this slightly creepy activity…

Monster cake

First, students need to find the surface area that the M&Ms cover in order to approximate how many M&Ms she needs to finish her cake.
When Brian tried to make the cake, he mistakenly added too much peanut butter.  Now all the of ingredients will need to be increased by some percent to insure that the cake maintains appropriate ingredient ratios?

Can you show that the Pythagorean Theorem works?

Use this activity to help your students work through the meaning of the Pythagorean theorem. Pythagorean theorem experiences are often skill and drill work with contrived right triangle problems. In this activity students work with a visual representation of the…

Operation Gratitude – Halloween candy buy back

This is a great idea! Motivate kids to get rid of all of that candy for a good cause. Operation Gratitude and dentists are encouraging healthy eating, motivated giving, and offering a good use for all of that leftover candy.…

Make a costume from a sheet

I’m going to make a costume pattern to sell.  People can buy my plan and make awesome, long, full, scary, ghost costumes.  This scheme will be so simple.  Perhaps I’ll get rich! In this activity young students can reason about…

Largest coffee, new world record

The world record for the largest cup of coffee was recently set (see picture above).  In this activity students explore scale, similar figures, volume and measurement as they estimate the amount of coffee that this record-sized mug holds.  Students also…

Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade 2019

 As we get ready for next week’s holiday, students can study a map of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, describe, measure and hypothesize why this route was chosen and then calculate how long each band will be marching…

Passover macaroons

Passover begins this year on Wednesday evening, April 5th, 2023, with a Passover seder dinner. Passover is one of the three high holidays in the Jewish religion and celebrates the Exodus of Jews from slavery in Egypt. Let your students…

California wildfire

Wildfires are burning in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Yosemite National Park.  In this activity we ask students to examine various maps of this California region, calculate distances using map scales, draw conclusions about the nature of fighting fire here,…