New
New
Year 2

Explain why standard units of measure are needed

I can measure length in any direction to give height, length and distance.

New
New
Year 2

Explain why standard units of measure are needed

I can measure length in any direction to give height, length and distance.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. If we all choose our own way to measure, we will end up with different measurements of the same thing.
  2. When you use the same unit of measure, you will get the same result.
  3. Standard units of measure are useful because they are always the same size and do not change.
  4. Centimetres are an example of a standard unit.

Common misconception

Children may think that the same type of object, for example a pencil, can be used as a unit of measure, even when they are different lengths.

Read the story of Pedro's birthday quest again and discuss why the friends using their own footsteps for measuring led to them getting different results.

Keywords

  • Unit of measure - Something used as a standard of measurement. It is '1' of the measurement.

  • Standard unit - Uniform units of measure that are agreed throughout a community.

The phrase 'how heavy' is used throughout this lesson since children have not been introduced to the concept of mass yet. This lesson uses balances to build on children's EYFS experiences.
Teacher tip

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Loading...

6 Questions

Q1.
Lucas measured the length of this leaf. It is 4 dominoes __________.
An image in a quiz
tall
Correct answer: long
far
Q2.
Sofia measured the __________ of the robot. It is 13 blocks tall.
An image in a quiz
distance
bottom
Correct answer: height
Q3.
To find how far something has travelled, we measure the __________.
length
height
Correct answer: distance
Q4.
What is the height of the doll? The doll is blocks tall.
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 9
Q5.
What is the distance that the car has travelled? cubes.
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 7
Q6.
The length of the carrot is cubes.
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 13

6 Questions

Q1.
Jun asked Aisha this question. What is the answer to the question?
An image in a quiz
No, we can only use cubes as a unit of measure.
Correct answer: Yes, as long as they are all identical.
Q2.
The toy car is as heavy as dominoes.
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 8
Q3.
In the story about Pedro Panda and Sydney Snake, why was the bed too small for Sydney?
Pedro didn’t measure carefully.
Correct answer: Pedro, Freda and Claire used different-sized footsteps to measure.
Sydney Snake grew longer.
Q4.
A __________ unit of measure does not get larger or smaller. It will always be the same size.
different
Correct answer: standard
block
Q5.
Which of these units is a standard unit of measure?
paper clips
Correct answer: centimetre or cm
blocks
Q6.
Who has used a standard unit of measure to find the height of the astronaut?
An image in a quiz
Jun
Correct answer: Aisha