Measuring and Fractions

We worked on money math for about 2 weeks and I thought we needed a little change of pace. So for a fun math activity I decided that we could work on measurement--ie learning to use a ruler. I haven't ever worked on that with either of the boys. I had the boys find two rulers. As it turns out they each found a different size ruler. Tigger's ruler was the typical 12 inches and Pooh's was a 6 inch ruler. This made it interesting for Pooh when we had to measure things longer than 12 inches.

Both boys got 5 things from their room that they wanted to measure. One of Pooh's stuffed animals was more than 24 inches long so we had to 'add'. This was one of those days where Pooh forgot how to add. Again. Suddenly 6 + 6 became a huge ordeal. We had to get out the blocks and start from scratch to measure the stuffed animal. We did have smaller things to measure and he did fine with that part (ie 8 inches etc) but when he had to use the 6 inch ruler and add it more than once, it was a 'big deal'. Some days he would be able to get this fine. Other days it seems as if he's forgotten most of what he's learned. It's crazy and really slows us down with his mathematical learning. Thus the reason he's never worked on measurement before. Tigger on the other hand, was adding in his head. Sigh. But that's really great for him!!!

Before they measured their items, we practiced by tracing our feet and hand prints onto paper and measuring them. Pooh's hand and foot measurements were scarily close to mine. The boy is growing!

Tigger's measurements.

Once we got a good grasp of the measuring, I realized that we needed to talk about fractions a little too. They were getting a little confused with the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 inch measurements. It just sort of naturally flowed into a lesson on fractions. The first day all I did was show them a pizza cut into fourths and we talked about those basic fractions that fit in with our measurements.

This is what we did the 2nd day. Pooh likes to look at all the different country and state flags and even though he's not memorized them all, he still knows a lot more than me.

So we spent our math time the second day using flags to talk about fractions. I only worked with the flags that show the basic fractions of 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 or 1 whole color. I was surprised by how many of the flags are separated into thirds with their color scheme. Any good children's atlas book with show the flags that go with the countries, so you can check there in case you'd like to 'try this at home'. ;D This was definitely a success because it was something Pooh was very interested in. I even tried showing how each part adds up to be the whole thing, but I know that will need more repetition because I could see it was flying over the top of his head. I'm pretty sure that Tigger understood it though.

Pooh was proud of his paper. Tigger was irritated by something else. LOL

Right now, we're back to MUS work but it is great that we took the break we did. Pooh has been working on word problems with dimes in his workbook so he's getting it all right. Working with money when we did turned out terrific. (One day I hope to be a little more organized with my Living Math approach. One day...) I think I'll take another week off once both boys are done with Lesson 8 to review some of what we learned.