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Rafe Esquith: Five Tips to Help Children Develop Their Natural Gifts

#1171. "Measure Hunt" 2nd Grade

Mathematics, level: 1-2
Posted Thu Jul 15 16:25:33 PDT 1999 by Dawn Schurman (dschurma@execpc.com).
Racine Christian School, Racine, WI
Materials Required: rulers for each student, construction paper, (pirate hats if desired)
Activity Time: 30 - 40 minutes
Concepts Taught: measurement

I sent my second graders on a "Measure Hunt". We have learned about feet, inches, centimeters and meters. I divided the class into groups of 2 -3 "pirates" and gave each group a specific number (eg. 5 inches) to measure around the room. Each group had to search the room for objects of that length and record what they found...they measured pencils, desks, classmate's feet, big books,
words on the word wall...anything they could find!

After a certain amount of time, I had all of my pirates return to their "ship" (group of desks) and create a poster of a treasure chest. Inside the lid, it says the measurement they were searching for. In the treasure chest, they drew pictures of the objects they found. They then shared their posters with the class. (By the way, I warned the class that any pirate who got too noisy was going to "walk the plank"...not one single voice got louder than a whisper!)