So Much Measuring!!

First graders have been learning all about measuring and have been measuring up a storm!  Last week they measured a collection of things using linker cubes. After measuring the items they had to list them in order from shortest to longest.  

Their next task was to measure some lengths of tape around the room using their own feet, or "kid steps".  While sharing our findings, we noticed that we all had different numbers!  Students engaged in a great discussion about why this happened and they were off to their next task.

So, the next task was to measure the same lengths of tape but this time students used baby steps, basketball player steps and craft sticks.  When all of the measuring is completed we will compare and discuss our findings, like should we all expect to get the same answer when we measured the same length of tape with the same units?  And why do we get such different numbers when we use different units?