Measuring with a unit that has a name

I can measure something in inches and say how long it is.

A measurement is a number and a unit together. Where the tape starts decides the number, so the end goes flush against the end of the object.

The child says each number aloud with the word inches after it before writing it, and settles a disagreement by relaying both tapes side by side.

First lesson. Hold up a pencil and ask how long it is. Take the answers — a few, seven, this long — and say that today every answer will have to carry a unit.

Grandma hands Carrie a tape measure and a job, and the book then names five things Carrie measures and prints a number for exactly one of them.

Children put the tape's very end flush against one end of an object with no gap and no overhang, hold it straight, read the number where the object stops and say it aloud with the word inches, writing one line per object on the spy list.

A measuring spy list carrying ten lines — six basket objects and four paper stand-ins — each with a number and a unit.

Children look down the list, find the biggest number of inches and say which object it is and how long, then find the smallest and say that one too, without taking the numbers apart.

I can put lengths in order from a starting line.

An order read off an arrangement is only true if the arrangement is fair. Left ends on one line is what makes the longest piece the longest.

The child slides a measured fourth piece into the right place without moving the others and names both of its neighbours with their lengths.

The list has numbers on it now. Today the lengths themselves get laid side by side, and where they start turns out to matter.

The back-matter chart gives three yarn pieces three different lengths and prints them in no particular arrangement.

Children lay each yarn piece along the tape from its very beginning and cut it to the chart's length, saying each length aloud, then line all three up on the mat with their left ends touching the starting line, shortest at the top.

Three cut pieces in order from a shared line, with a measured fourth piece slid in between the right two.

Children slide one piece so it starts an inch further along, say what now looks true that is not, push it back and say the rule out loud in their own words.

I can build a foot and a yard out of inches.

The units are not separate facts. A yard is three of one thing and thirty-six of another, and the same length can be named all three ways.

The child names one length three ways with a finger on the part of the line each name counts.

Everything so far has been measured in inches. Today the inches get gathered into bigger units with names of their own.

This book says the same distance twice in different words on nearly every page, and the back matter does it in a table: one foot equals twelve inches, one yard equals three feet and thirty-six inches.

Children lay one-inch tiles end to end along a foot ruler from the zero end, count them by ones, then add a second row of twelve beginning where the first stopped with no gap at the join and count the whole line — first from one and then by counting on from twelve.

Three rows of twelve tiles checked against a yard tape, with twelve, twenty-four and thirty-six all counted and said.

With a hand on each end of the yard tape so the length cannot change, children say that length as thirty-six inches, then as three feet, then as one yard, putting each floor card under the part of the line its name counts.

I can mark two feet on the floor and check it in inches.

A measurement you have made can be checked by a different route. Two rulers end to end and twenty-four tiles should both finish on the same mark.

The child's floor strip survives both checks, and where it does not, they find the gap rather than moving the tape.

The units are built. Today one of them gets used on the floor, and then tested twice.

One thing in this book actually gets measured, and the book says so in two short sentences: Jen fetches a tape measure and measures two feet.

One child stands with heels together while a partner lays the tape flat with its end at their toes and sticks a strip down at two feet, then checks it by laying two one-foot rulers end to end from the same toes so the second ruler finishes on the strip.

A floor line at two feet, checked once with rulers and once by counting twenty-four inch tiles along it.

Children swap places so that one stands somewhere near the strip and the other runs the tape from the first child's toes, reads how far away the partner's toes really are and says whether that is on the line, inside it or past it.

I can say which of two lengths is longer when the units are different.

Two hundred is more than one hundred and two hundred feet is less than one hundred yards. The comparison is settled by the size of the unit, not by the size of the number.

The child's reason names both units and uses the sticks, and they can say what the character looked at and what he forgot to look at.

The units have been built and used. Today they disagree with the numbers, and the class has to decide which to trust.

The map offers a path of a hundred yards and a path of two hundred feet, and Ben picks the wrong one out loud because two hundred is more than a hundred.

Children hold the yardstick and the foot ruler up together with the bottoms level, lay the short one along the long one and move it up to find how many times it fits, then walk ten of each unit from two tape lines and see which mark is further from the start.

Both trails walked and marked, with Ben's sentence tested against the two sticks and a verdict given.

Children say the rule in their own words — when can you trust the bigger number and when can you not — then say which path wins and check whether a partner's sentence has a unit in it or only a number.

I can measure around a round thing and say how it differs from across.

One object can give two different numbers, and each answers a different question. A stiff ruler cannot answer the around question at all.

The child says which of their two numbers is across and which is around, and can say why the stiff ruler could not have produced the second.

Everything measured so far has been straight. Today the object is round, and the tape has to bend.

Ben holds a rigid ruler across the top of a round pie and Gina stops him, because she wants the distance around the pumpkin rather than the distance across it.

Children lay the stiff ruler across the widest part of a round object and write the number, then wrap the soft tape round its middle like a belt until it comes back to where it started, hold the spot with a thumb and write that number underneath.

Two numbers for one object with the word inches on each, and three round objects measured around and put in order smallest first.

Children look at their two numbers, say which is across and which is around and which is bigger, say why the around number could not have come from the stiff ruler, and finish the sentence: my ___ is ___ inches around.

I can put the book's distances in order and say which ones will not fit on our line.

Some distances cannot be drawn to the same scale as the others. Where the picture has to break is a fact about the units, and it can be said with the book's own figures.

The child places the four short cards by measuring from one standing place and orders the five mile-sized cards with a reason given for each placement.

The class can measure, convert and compare. Today all nine of the book's distances have to go in one picture, and four of them will not fit.

Jen names nine distances and the book puts a number on every one, from the one inch Lucy stands at to the two hundred and forty thousand miles of the moon.

Children sort the nine cards by unit, lay six one-yard ribbons end to end, and place the four short cards on the ribbon line at their own places — measuring the three shortest with the tape from one standing place and finding the six-yard card's place by counting ribbons, because the tape will not reach.

A ribbon line carrying the four short distances and a floor tape carrying the five mile-sized cards in order, each placement justified.

Standing at the join, children say why the mile cards had to leave the ribbons, read the sentence giving six yards in feet and the sentence giving one mile in feet, say both numbers one after the other, and say whether their picture agrees with the book's last line.