First Steps in

Mathematics
Measurement Indirect Measure
Resource Book 2 Estimate

Improving the mathematics

outcomes of students

FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2

© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
 First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Resource Book 2
Indirect Measure and Estimate

© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013

Published in Canada by
Pearson Canada Inc.
26 Prince Andrew Place
Don Mills, ON M3C 2T8

Text by Sue Willis with Wendy Devlin, Lorraine Jacob, Beth Powell, Dianne Tomazos, and
Kaye Treacy for STEPS Professional Development on behalf of the Department of Education and
Training, Western Australia.

Photos: Ray Boudreau

Illustrations: Neil Curtis, Vesna Krstanovich and David Cheung

ISBN-13: 978-0-13-188206-5
ISBN-10: 0-13-188206-6

Publisher: Debbie Davidson

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2

© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
Diagnostic Map: Measurement
Matching and
Emergent Phase Comparing Phase Quantifying Phase
Most students will enter the Matching and Most students will enter the Quantifying phase
Comparing phase between 5 and 7 years of age. between 7 and 9 years of age.

During the Emergent Phase As students move from the Emergent As students move from the
phase, to the Matching and Matching and Comparing phase to
Students initially attend to overall appearance of size,
Comparing phase, they: the Quantifying phase, they:
recognizing one thing as perceptually bigger than another
and using comparative language in a fairly ■ may not “conserve” measures; e.g., thinking that ■ while knowing that ordering objects by different
undifferentiated and absolute way (big/small) rather moving a rod changes its length, pouring changes attributes may lead to different orders, may still be
than to describe comparative size (bigger/smaller). Over “how much,” cutting up paper makes more surface area influenced by the more dominant perceptual features;
time, they note that their communities distinguish e.g., they may still think the tallest container holds
between different forms of bigness (or size) and make ■ may visually compare the size of two things, but make the most
relative judgements of size. no effort to match; e.g., saying which stick is longer
without lining up the bases or which sheet of paper is ■ may count “units” in order to compare two things but
As a result, they begin to understand and use the bigger without superimposing be fairly casual in their repetition of units, not
everyday language of attributes and comparison used noticing gaps or overlaps; e.g., placing the first “unit”
within their home and school environment, ■ compare time spans but may not take into account away from the end when measuring length, not
differentiating between attributes that are obviously different starting times; e.g., deciding that the TV worrying about spills when measuring how much a
perceptually different. program that finished latest was on longest container holds, not stopping their claps immediately
the music stops
■ use bipolar pairs but may have difficulty with some
comparative terms; e.g., lift to decide which is heavier ■ do not necessarily expect the same “answer” each
By the end of the Emergent phase, students but say both are heavy because both hands go down time when deciding how many fit
typically:
■ may distinguish two attributes (such as tallness and ■ many not think to use unit information to answer
■ distinguish tallness, heaviness, fatness, and how much mass) but not understand that the two attributes may questions such as: Which cup holds more? Will the
things hold lead to different orders of size for a collection, table slide through the door?
expecting the order for tallness and the order for mass
■ start to distinguish different forms of length and to
to be the same ■ may not see the significance of using a common unit
use common contextual length distinctions; e.g.,
to compare two things and, when using different units,
distinguish wide from tall ■ while describing different attributes of the same thing let the resulting number override their perceptual
(tall, thin, and heavy) may be confused by a request judgement
■ use different bipolar pairs to describe things; e.g.,
to compare two things by different attributes,
thin—fat, heavy—light, tall—short
particularly if the comparisons lead to different orders ■ while many will have learned to use the centimetre
■ describe two or three obvious measurement attributes marks on a conventional rule to “measure” lengths,
■ often do not think to use counting to say how big or they often do not see the connection between the
of the same thing; e.g., tall, thin, and heavy
how much bigger; e.g., they may “weigh” something process and the repetition of units
■ describe something as having more or less of an by putting it into one side of a balance and smaller
attribute than something else, e.g., as being taller objects into the other side but not count the objects
than or as being fatter than. During the Quantifying Phase
During the Matching and Comparing Phase Students connect the two ideas of directly comparing
the size of things and of deciding “how many fit” and so
Students match in a conscious way in order to decide come to an understanding that the count of actual or
which is bigger by familiar readily perceived and imagined repetitions of units gives an indication of size
distinguished attributes such as length, mass, capacity, and enables two things to be compared without directly
and time. They also repeat copies of objects, amounts, matching them.
and actions to decide how many fit (balance or match)
a provided object or event. As a result, they trust information about repetitions
of units as an indicator of size and are prepared to use
As a result, they learn to directly compare things to this in making comparisons of objects.
decide which is longer, fatter, heavier, holds more,
or took longer. They also learn what people expect
them to do in response to questions such as “How By the end of the Quantifying phase, stu-
long (tall, wide or heavy, much time, much does it
dents typically:
hold)?”or when explicitly asked to measure
something. ■ attempt to ensure uniformity of representations of
the unit; e.g., check that the cup is always full, the
pencil does not change length, the balls are the same
By the end of the Matching and Comparing size
phase, students typically:
■ use the representations of their unit carefully to make
■ attempt to focus on a particular attribute to compare as close a match as possible, avoiding gaps and
two objects or events; e.g., how much the jar holds overlaps; e.g., choose a flexible tape to measure the
perimeter of a curved shape
■ know that several objects or events may be in different
orders when compared by different attributes ■ know why they need to choose the same size objects
to use as units when comparing two quantities
■ line up the base of two sticks when comparing their
lengths and fit regions on top of each other to ■ see repeating one representation of the unit over and
compare area over as equivalent to filling or matching with multiple
copies of it
■ use the everyday notion of “how many fit” and count
how many repeats of an object fit into or match ■ connect the repetition of a ‘unit‘ with the numbers
another; e.g., How many pens fit along the table? on a whole-number calibrated scale
How many potato prints cover the sheet? How many
blocks fit in the box? ■ make things to a specified length in uniform units
(including centimetres and metres)
■ count units and call it “measuring;” e.g., I measured
and found the jar holds a bit more than 7 scoops. ■ use provided measurements to make a decision about
comparative size; e.g., use the fact that a friend‘s
■ use “between” to describe measurements of uni- frog weighs 7 marbles to decide whether their own
dimensional quantities (length, mass, capacity, time); frog is heavier or lighter
e.g., It weights between 7 and 8 marbles.
■ count units as a strategy to solve comparison problems
■ refer informally to part-units when measuring uni- such as: Whose frog is heavier? Put the jars in order
dimensional quantities; e.g., Our room is 6 and a bit from the one that holds the most to the one that
metres long. holds the least.

■ are prepared to say which is longer (heavier) based

on information about the number of units matching
each object

■ think of different things having the same “size”; e.g.,

use grid paper to draw different shapes with the same
perimeter

■ add measurements that they can readily think of in

terms of repetitions of units; e.g., find the perimeter
What is the Diagnostic Map for Measurement? of a shape by measuring the sides and adding

How students currently think about measurement attributes and

units will influence how they respond to the activities provided for
them, and hence what they are able to learn from them. As stu-
dents’ thinking about measurement develops, it goes through a series
of characteristic phases. Recognizing these common patterns of
thinking should help you to interpret students' responses to activi-
ties, to understand why they seem to be able to do some things and
not others, and also why some students may be having difficulty in
achieving certain outcomes while others are not. It should also help
you to provide the challenges students need to move their thinking
forward, refine their half-formed ideas, overcome any misconcep-
tions they might have to and hence achieve the outcomes.

See over

FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2

© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
Diagnostic Map: Measurement cont.

Quantifying Phase Measuring Phase Relating Phase

Most students will enter the Quantifying phase Most students will enter the Measuring phase Most students will enter the Relating phase
between 7 and 9 years of age. between 9 and 11 years of age. between 11 and 13 years of age

As students move from the As students move from the As students move from the Measuring
Matching and Comparing phase to Quantifying phase to the Measuring phase to the Relating phase, they:
the Quantifying phase, they: phase, they:
■ while partitioning a rectangle into appropriate squares
■ while knowing that ordering objects by different ■ while trying to make as close a match as possible to and using the array structure to find its area, may
attributes may lead to different orders, may still be the thing to be measured, may find the desire to not connect this with multiplying the lengths of the
influenced by the more dominant perceptual features; match closely overriding the need for consistency of sides of a rectangle to find its area
e.g., they may still think the tallest container holds unit; e.g., they may resort to “filling” a region with a
■ while understanding the inverse relationship between
the most variety of different objects in order to cover it as
closely as possible the unit and the number of units needed, may still
■ may count “units” in order to compare two things but be distracted by the numbers in measurements and
be fairly casual in their repetition of units, not ■ may not understand that the significance of having ignore the units; e.g., say that 350 g is more than 2
noticing gaps or overlaps; e.g., placing the first “unit” no gaps and overlaps is that the “true” measurement kg
away from the end when measuring length, not is independent of the placement of the units
■ while converting between known standard units, may
worrying about spills when measuring how much a
container holds, not stopping their claps immediately ■ may still think of the unit as an object and of treat related metric measures just as they would any
the music stops measuring as “fitting” in the social sense of the word other unit, not seeing the significance of the decimal
(How many people fit in the elevator? How many structure built into all metric measures
■ do not necessarily expect the same “answer” each beans in the jar?) and so have difficulty with the idea
time when deciding how many fit of combining part-units as is often needed in order to
find the area of a region During the Relating Phase
■ many not think to use unit information to answer
questions such as: Which cup holds more? Will the ■ many confuse the unit (a quantity) with the Students come to trust measurement information even
table slide through the door? instrument (or object) used to represent it; e.g., they when it is about things they cannot see or handle and to
may think a square metre has to be a square with understand measurement relationships, both those
■ may not see the significance of using a common unit sides of 1 m, may count cubes for area and not think between attributes and those between units.
to compare two things and, when using different units, of the face of each as the unit
let the resulting number override their perceptual As a result, they work with measurement information
judgement ■ may interpret whole numbered marks on a calibrated itself and can use measurements to compare things,
scale as units but may not interpret the meaning of including those they have not directly experienced,
■ while many will have learned to use the centimetre unlabelled graduations and to indirectly measure things.
marks on a conventional rule to “measure” lengths,
they often do not see the connection between the
process and the repetition of units During the Measuring Phase By the end of the Relating phase, students
Students come to understand the unit as an amount
typically:
During the Quantifying Phase (rather than an object or a mark on a scale) and to see ■ understand that known relationships between
the process of matching a unit with an object as attributes can be used to find measurements that
Students connect the two ideas of directly comparing equivalent to subdividing the object into bits of the cannot be found directly; e.g., understand that we
the size of things and of deciding “how many fit” and so same size as the unit and counting the bits. can use length measurements to work out area
come to an understanding that the count of actual or
imagined repetitions of units gives an indication of size As a result, they see that part-units can be combined ■ know that for figures of the same shape (that is,
and enables two things to be compared without directly to form whole units and they understand and trust similar) the greater the length measures the greater
matching them. the measurement as a property or description of the the area measures, but this is not so if the figures
object being measured that does not change as a are different shapes
As a result, they trust information about repetitions result of the choice or placement of units.
of units as an indicator of size and are prepared to use ■ understand why the area of a rectangle and the volume
this in making comparisons of objects. of a rectangular prism can be found by multiplying
By the end of the Measuring phase, students its length dimensions and can use this for fractional
typically: side lengths
By the end of the Quantifying phase, stu-
■ think of the part-units themselves as units; e.g., a
dents typically: ■ expect the same number of copies of the
representation of their unit to match the object being particular unit can be divided into one hundred parts
■ attempt to ensure uniformity of representations of measured regardless of how they arrange or place the and each part is then a centi-unit
the unit; e.g., check that the cup is always full, the copies ■ subdivide units to make measurements more accurate
pencil does not change length, the balls are the same
size ■ understand that the smaller the unit the greater the ■ choose units that are sufficiently small (that is,
number; e.g., are able to say which is the longer of a accurate) to make the needed comparisons
■ use the representations of their unit carefully to make 1-km walk and a 1400-m walk.
as close a match as possible, avoiding gaps and ■ use their understanding of the multiplicative structure
overlaps; e.g., choose a flexible tape to measure the ■ compose “part-units” into wholes, understanding, for built into the metric system to move flexibly between
perimeter of a curved shape example, that a narrow garden bed may have an area related standard units; e.g., they interpret the 0.2 kg
of 5 or 6 m2 even though no whole “metre squares” fit mark on a scale as 200 g
■ know why they need to choose the same size objects into the bed
to use as units when comparing two quantities ■ notice and reject unrealistic estimates and
■ can themselves partition a rectangle into appropriate
■ see repeating one representation of the unit over and measurements, including of objects or events they
squares and use the array structure to work out how have not actually seen or experienced
over as equivalent to filling or matching with multiple many squares are in the rectangle
copies of it ■ use relationships between measurements to find
■ interpret the unnumbered graduations on a familiar
■ connect the repetition of a ‘unit‘ with the numbers measures indirectly; e.g., knowing that 1 mL = 1 cm3
whole-number scale they can find the volume of an irregular solid in cubic
on a whole-number calibrated scale
■ understand the relationship between “part-units” and centimetres by finding how many millilitres of water
■ make things to a specified length in uniform units the common metric prefixes; e.g., know that a unit it displaces using a capacity cylinder
(including centimetres and metres) can be broken into one hundred parts and each part
will be a centi-unit
■ use provided measurements to make a decision about
comparative size; e.g., use the fact that a friend‘s ■ work with provided measurement information alone;
frog weighs 7 marbles to decide whether their own e.g., order measurements of capacity provided in
frog is heavier or lighter different standard units, make things that meet
measurement specifications
■ count units as a strategy to solve comparison problems
such as: Whose frog is heavier? Put the jars in order
from the one that holds the most to the one that
holds the least.

■ are prepared to say which is longer (heavier) based

on information about the number of units matching
each object

■ think of different things having the same “size”; e.g.,

use grid paper to draw different shapes with the same
perimeter

■ add measurements that they can readily think of in

terms of repetitions of units; e.g., find the perimeter
of a shape by measuring the sides and adding

FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2

© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION v

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY vi

CHAPTER 1: AN OVERVIEW OF FIRST STEPS IN MATHEMATICS 1

Beliefs about Teaching and Learning 2
Learning Mathematics: Implications for the Classroom 4
Understanding the Elements of First Steps in Mathematics 8
How to Read the Diagnostic Map 12
Planning with First Steps in Mathematics 15

CHAPTER 2: INDIRECT MEASURE 21

Background Notes 22
Indirect Measure: Key Understandings Overview 24

Key Understanding 1: For certain types of shapes we can describe

the relationship between the lengths of their edges and their
perimeters, areas, and volumes. 26
Sample Learning Activities 28
Case Study 1 40

Key Understanding 2: When two objects have the same shape: 44

• matching angles are equal
• matching lengths are proportional
• matching areas are related in a predictable way
• matching volumes are related in a predictable way.
Sample Learning Activities 46
Case Study 2 54

Key Understanding 3: Scale drawings and models have the same

shape as the original object. This can be useful for comparing
and calculating dimensions and for making judgements about
position. 58
Sample Learning Activities 60
Case Study 3 66

FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2

© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
 Key Understanding 4: We can calculate one measurement
from others using relationships between quantities. 68
Sample Learning Activities 70
Case Study 4 78

CHAPTER 3: ESTIMATE 83
Estimate: Key Understandings Overview 84

Key Understanding 1: We can make judgements about order and

size without actually measuring. We should think about how
confident we can be of our estimate. 86
Sample Learning Activities 88

Key Understanding 2: We can improve our estimates by getting

to know the size of common units and by practicing judging
the size of objects and events. 94
Sample Learning Activities 96
Case Study 1 105

Key Understanding 3: We can use information we know to

make and improve estimates. This also helps us to judge
whether measurements and results are reasonable. 108
Sample Learning Activities 110
Case Study 2 116

APPENDIX 119
Line Masters 120
Planning Master 141
Diagnostic Map Masters 142

FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2

© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
 INTRODUCTION
The First Steps in Mathematics resource books and professional learning
program are designed to help teachers plan, implement, and evaluate the
mathematics program they provide for students. The series describes the
key mathematical ideas students need to understand in order to achieve the
principal learning goals of mathematics curricula across Canada and around
the world.

Unlike many resources that present mathematical concepts that have been
logically ordered and prioritized by mathematicians or educators, First Steps
in Mathematics follows a sequence derived from the mathematical
development of real children. Each resource book is based on five years of
research by a team of teachers from the Western Australia Department of
Education and Training, and tertiary consultants led by Professor Sue Willis
at Murdoch University.
The First Steps in Mathematics project team conducted an extensive review
of international research literature, which revealed gaps in the field of
knowledge about students’ learning in mathematics. Many of these findings
are detailed in the Background Notes that supplement the Key
Understandings described in the First Steps in Mathematics resource books
for Measurement.
Using tasks designed to replicate those in the research literature, team
members interviewed hundreds of elementary school children in diverse
locations. Analysis of the data obtained from these interviews identified
characteristic phases in the development of students' thinking about
mathematical concepts.
The Diagnostic Maps—which appear in the resource books for Number,
Measurement, Geometry and Space, and Data Management and
Probability—describe these phases of development, exposing specific markers
where students often lose, or never develop, the connection between
mathematics and meaning. Thus, First Steps in Mathematics helps teachers
systematically observe not only what mathematics individual children do, but
how the children do the mathematics, and how to advance the children's
learning.
It has never been more important to teach mathematics well. Globalization
and the increasing use of technology have created changing demands for
the application of mathematics in all aspects of our lives. Teaching
mathematics well to all students requires a high level of understanding of
teaching and learning in mathematics and of mathematics itself. The First
Steps in Mathematics series and professional learning program help teachers
provide meaningful learning experiences and enhance their capacity to
decide how best to help all students achieve the learning goals of
mathematics.

v
FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Battista, M. 1999, “The importance of spatial structuring in geometric
reasoning,” Teaching Children Mathematics, November, 170–177.
Messenger, N., and Southey, R. 1998, The Three Bears, Dorling Kindersley,
London.

vi
FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
Chapter 1
An Overview of First Steps
in Mathematics

73
First Steps in Mathematics is a professional learning program and series of
teacher resource books that are organized around mathematics curricula for
Number, Measurement, Geometry and Space, and Data Management and
Probability.

8
The aim of First Steps in Mathematics is to improve students’ learning of
mathematics.
First Steps in Mathematics examines mathematics within a developmental
framework to deepen teachers’ understanding of teaching and learning
mathematics. The developmental framework outlines the characteristic
phases of thinking that students move through as they learn key mathematical
concepts. As teachers internalize this framework, they make more intuitive
and informed decisions around instruction and assessment to advance student
learning.
First Steps in Mathematics helps teachers to:
■ build or extend their own knowledge of the mathematics underpinning
the curriculum
■ understand how students learn mathematics so they can make sound
professional decisions
■ plan learning experiences that are likely to develop the mathematics
outcomes for all students
■ recognize opportunities for incidental teaching during conversations and
routines that occur in the classroom
This chapter details the beliefs about effective teaching and learning that First
Steps in Mathematics is based on and shows how the elements of the teacher
resource books facilitate planning and instruction.
6
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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
 Beliefs about Teaching and Learning
Focus Improves by Explicitly Clarifying Outcomes for Mathematics
Learning is improved if the whole-school community has a shared
understanding of the mathematics curriculum goals, and an implementation
plan and commitment to achieving them. A common understanding of
these long-term aims helps individuals and groups of teachers decide how best
to support and nurture students’ learning, and how to tell when this has
happened.

All Students Can Learn Mathematics to the Best of Their Ability

A commitment to common goals signals a belief that all students can be
successful learners of mathematics. A situation where less is expected of
and achieved by certain groups of students is not acceptable. School systems,
schools and teachers are all responsible for ensuring that each student has
access to the learning conditions he or she requires to achieve the curricular
goals to the best of his or her ability.

Learning Mathematics Is an Active and Productive Process

Learning is not simply about the transfer of knowledge from one person to
another. Rather, students need to construct their own mathematical
knowledge in their own way and at a pace that enables them to make sense
of the mathematical situations and ideas they encounter. A developmental
learning approach is based on this notion of learning. It recognizes that not
all students learn in the same way, through the same processes, or at the
same rate.

Common Curricular Goals Do Not Imply Common Instruction

The explicit statement of the curricular goals expected for all students helps
teachers to make decisions about the classroom program. However, the list
of content and process goals for mathematics is not a curriculum. If all
students are to succeed to the best of their ability on commonly agreed
concepts, different curriculum implementations will not only be possible,
but also be necessary. Teachers must decide what type of instructional
activities are needed for their students to achieve the learning goals.

A curriculum that enables all students to learn must allow for different
starting points and pathways to learning so that students are not left out or
behind.
—Darling-Hammond, National standards and assessments, p. 480

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
Professional Decision-Making Is Central in Teaching
It is the responsibility of teachers to provide all students with the conditions
necessary for them to achieve the curricular goals of mathematics. This
responsibility requires teachers to make many professional decisions
simultaneously, such as what to teach, to whom, and how, and making these
professional decisions requires a synthesis of knowledge, experience, and
evidence.

Professionalism has one essential feature; ...(it) requires the exercise

of complex, high level professional judgments...(which) involve various
mixes of specialised knowledge; high level cognitive skills; sensitive and
sophisticated personal skills; broad and relevant background and tacit
knowledge.
—Preston, Teacher professionalism, p. 2, 20

The personal nature of each student’s learning journey means that the
decisions teachers make are often “non-routine,” and the reasoning processes
involved can be complex. These processes cannot be reduced to a set of
instructions about what to do in any given situation. Teachers must have
the freedom and encouragement to adapt existing curricula flexibly to best
meet their students’ needs and to move them forward. The improvement
of students’ learning is most likely to take place when teachers have good
information about tasks, response range, and intervention techniques on
which to base their professional decisions.

“Risk” Relates to Future Mathematics Learning

Risk cannot always be linked directly to students’ current achievement.
Rather, it refers to the likelihood that their future mathematical progress is
“at risk.”
Some students who can answer questions correctly might not have the depth
of understanding needed for ongoing progress. Others might have
misconceptions that could also put their future learning “at risk.” A number
of students may make errors that are common when they try to make sense
of new mathematical ideas and, therefore, show progress. For example, a
student who tries to count tiles using an array may count the corners twice,
which is incorrect. However, the use of the array signals progress because
the student is using his or her knowledge of the repeating nature of the area
unit.
Students who are learning slowly, or whose previous experiences are atypical,
might nevertheless progress steadily if their stage of learning is accommodated
with appropriate, but challenging, learning experiences.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
 Successful Mathematics Learning Is Robust Learning
Robust learning, which focuses on students developing mathematics concepts
fully and deeply, is essential if learning is to be sustained over the long term.
A focus on short-term performance or procedural knowledge at the expense
of robust knowledge places students “at risk” of not continuing to progress
throughout the years of schooling.

Learning Mathematics:
Implications for the Classroom
Learning mathematics is an active and productive process on the part of
the learner. The following section illustrates how this approach influences the
ways in which mathematics is taught in the classroom.

Learning Is Built on Existing Knowledge

Learners’ interpretations of mathematical experiences depend on what they
already know and understand. For example, many young students may
distinguish two attributes (such as tallness and heaviness) but not understand
that the two attributes may lead to different orders of size for a collection,
expecting the order for height and the order for mass to be the same. Other
students may compare time spans but may not take into account different
starting times; e.g., deciding that the television program that finished latest
was on longest.
In each case, students’ existing knowledge should be recognized and used
as the basis for further learning. Their learning should be developed to
include the complementary knowledge with the new knowledge being linked
to and building on students’ existing ideas.

Learning Requires That Existing Ideas Be Challenged

Learning requires that students extend or alter what they know as a result of
their knowledge being challenged or stretched in some way. For example, a
challenge may occur when a student predicts that the tallest container will
hold the most water, then measures and finds that it does not.
Another challenge may occur when a student believes that when size
increases, mass increases. Or, it may happen when the student finds that
peers think about a problem in a different way. The student must find some
way of dealing with the challenge or conflict provided by the new information
in order to learn.

Learning Occurs when the Learner Makes Sense of the New Ideas
Teaching is important—but learning is done by the learner rather than to the
learner. This means the learner acts on and makes sense of new information.
Students almost always try to do this. However, in trying to make sense of
their mathematical experiences, some students will draw conclusions that are
not quite what their teachers expect.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
Also, when students face mathematical situations that are not meaningful,
or are well beyond their current experience and reach, they often conclude
that the mathematics does not make sense or that they are incapable of
making sense of it. This may encourage students to resort to learning strategies
based on the rote imitation of procedures. The result is likely to be short-term
rather than effective long-term learning. Teachers have to provide learning
experiences that are meaningful and challenging, but within the reach of
their students.

Learning Involves Taking Risks and Making Errors

In order to learn, students have to be willing to try a new or different way of
doing things, and stretch a bit further than they think they can. At times,
mistakes can be a sign of progress. For example, students may count “units”
in order to compare two things but be fairly casual in their repetition of
units, not noticing gaps or overlaps; e.g., placing the first “unit” away from
the end when measuring length, not worrying about spills when measuring
how much a container holds, or not stopping their claps immediately when
the music stops. Such errors can be positive signs that students are matching
and comparing as they move to understand the more precise meaning of
quantity or “how much.”
Errors can provide a useful source of feedback, challenging students to adjust
their conceptions before trying again. Errors may also suggest that learners
are prepared to work on new or difficult problems where increased error is
likely. Or, learners may try improved ways of doing things that mean giving
up old and safe, but limited, strategies. For example, a student who can
successfully find the number of paper tiles to tile a rectangular room by
laying them all out in order takes a risk when trying to multiply the lengths
of the sides of the rectangle, since multiplying may result in increased mistakes
in the short term.

Learners Get Better with Practice

Students should get adequate opportunities to practise mathematics, but
this involves much more than the rote or routine repetition of facts and
procedures. For example, the very language of “square unit” convinces many
students that units of area have to be square shapes. They will need
considerable experience in cutting and rearranging shapes to convince
themselves that rearranging the cut shape does not change the area and
that a “square unit” is an amount of area not a shape or thing.
Likewise, if students are to develop a rich understanding of measurement
they will need spaced and varied opportunities to notice and reject unrealistic
estimates and measurements, including things they have not actually seen or
experienced. Repetitious procedures of routine questions are unlikely to
provide this rich understanding. In fact, they are more likely to interfere
with it.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
 Learning Is Helped by Clarity of Purpose for Students as well as
Teachers
Learning is likely to be enhanced if students understand what kind of learning
activity they should be engaged in at any particular time. This means helping
students to distinguish between tasks that provide practice of an already
learned procedure and tasks that are intended to develop understanding of
mathematical concepts and processes. In the former case, little that is new
is involved, and tasks are repetitive, so they become habitual and almost
unthinking. Students should expect to be able to start almost immediately
and, if they cannot, realize that they may need to know more and seek help.
With tasks that are intended to develop understanding, non-routine tasks and
new ideas may be involved. Students should not expect to know what to
do or to be able to get started immediately.
Students may spend a considerable amount of time on a single task, and
they will often be expected to work out for themselves what to do. They
should recognize that, for such activities, persistence, thoughtfulness, struggle,
and reflection are expected.

Teaching Mathematics
Teachers assume considerable responsibility for creating the best possible
conditions for learning. The kind of learning tasks and environment teachers
provide depend on their own view of how learning is best supported. The
perspective that learning is an active and productive process has two
significant implications for teaching.
First, teachers cannot predict or control exactly what and when students
learn. They need to plan curricula that provide students with a wider and
more complex range of information and experiences than they would be
expected to understand fully at any given time. For example, teachers often
provide opportunities for their students to explore the number system using
calculators. Similar experiences can assist students in making parallel
connections to the multiplicative structure of the metric system. Before
formally introducing a concept, a teacher can present situations that
challenge students to use their prior understanding of number to experiment
with ideas about measurement, such as, “Is 0.2 km equivalent to 2 m, 20 m,
200 m, or 2000 m?” In this way teachers can stimulate their students’
curiosity about connections within mathematics, helping students develop
notions about the structure of the metric system at many different levels
preceding the prescribed teaching of these connections.

This represents a significant change in curriculum planning. It is a

movement away from an approach that only exposes students to content
and ideas that they should be able to understand or do at a particular point
in time.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Second, for students to become effective learners of mathematics, they must
be engaged fully and actively. Students will want, and be able, to take on the
challenge, persistent effort, and risks involved. Equal opportunities to learn
mathematics means teachers will:
■ provide an environment for learning that is equally supportive of all
students
■ offer each student appropriate mathematical challenges

■ foster in all students processes that enhance learning and contribute to

successful achievment of goals

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 Understanding the Elements of First Steps in
Mathematics
The elements of First Steps in Mathematics embody the foregoing beliefs about
teaching and learning and work together to address three main questions:

■ What are students expected to learn?

■ How does this learning develop?
■ How do teachers advance this learning?

Learning Outcomes for the Measurement Strand

The Measurement strand focuses on the basic principles of measurement:
the range of measures in common use and the skills needed for everyday
purposes. As a result of their learning, students will develop confidence and
proficiency in using direct and indirect measurement and estimating skills to
describe, compare, evaluate, plan, and construct.
To achieve these outcomes, students require an understanding of the nature
of the different physical attributes that can be measured and the way units
are used to quantify amounts of such attributes to needed levels of accuracy.
It also requires the ability and understandings needed to make informed
judgements about measurements for a range of purposes and to calculate
measurement indirectly using measurement relationships. Learning
experiences should be provided that will enable students to understand units,
directly and indirectly measure, and estimate measurements.
As a result of their learning experiences, students at all levels should be able
to achieve the following outcomes.
First Steps in
Mathematics Understand Units
Measurement
Decide what needs to be measured by selecting what attributes to measure and
Understand Units and
Resource Book 1 Direct Measure

Improving the mathematics

outcomes of students
what units to use.

Direct Measure
Carry out measurements of length, capacity, volume, mass, area, time, and
angle to needed levels of accuracy.

Indirect Measure
Select, interpret, and combine measurements, measurement relationships
First Steps in
Mathematics and formulas to determine other measures indirectly.
Measurement Indirect Measure
Resource Book 2 Estimate

Improving the mathematics

outcomes of students Estimate
Make sensible direct and indirect estimates of quantities and be alert to the
reasonableness of measurements and results.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Integrating the Outcomes
The outcomes suggested above for Measurement are each dealt with in a
separate chapter. This is to emphasize the importance of each and the
difference between them. For example, students need to learn about what
attributes to measure and what units to use (Understand Units) as well as
developing the skill to reliably and accurately use units to directly measure
each of these attributes (Direct Measure). By paying separate and special
attention to each outcome, teachers can make sure that both areas receive
sufficient attention and that important ideas about each are drawn out of the
learning experiences they provide.
This does not mean, however, that the ideas and skills underpinning each of
the outcomes should be taught separately or that they will be learned
separately. The outcomes are inextricably linked. Consequently, many of
the activities will provide opportunities for students to develop their ideas
about more than one of the outcomes. This will help teachers to ensure that
the significant mathematical ideas are drawn from the learning activities so
that students achieve each of the outcomes for Measurement.

How Does This Learning Develop?

First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement describes characteristic phases in
students’ thinking about the major mathematical concepts of the
Measurement strand. These developmental phases are organized in a
Diagnostic Map.

Diagnostic Map
The Diagnostic Map for Measurement details five developmental phases.
It helps teachers to:
■ understand why students seem to be able to do some things and not others

■ realize why some students may be experiencing difficulty while others are
not
■ indicate the challenges students need to move their thinking forward, to
refine their preconceptions, overcome any misconceptions, and so develop
deep reflective understanding about concepts
■ interpret students’ responses to activities

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Diagnostic Map: Measurement
Matching and
Emergent Phase Comparing Phase Quantifying Phase
Most students will enter the Matching and Most students will enter the Quantifying phase
Comparing phase between 5 and 7 years of age. between 7 and 9 years of age.

During the Emergent Phase As students move from the Emergent As students move from the
phase, to the Matching and Matching and Comparing phase to
Students initially attend to overall appearance of size,
Comparing phase, they: the Quantifying phase, they:
recognizing one thing as perceptually bigger than another
and using comparative language in a fairly ■ may not “conserve” measures; e.g., thinking that ■ while knowing that ordering objects by different
undifferentiated and absolute way (big/small) rather moving a rod changes its length, pouring changes attributes may lead to different orders, may still be
than to describe comparative size (bigger/smaller). Over “how much,” cutting up paper makes more surface area influenced by the more dominant perceptual features;
time, they note that their communities distinguish e.g., they may still think the tallest container holds
between different forms of bigness (or size) and make ■ may visually compare the size of two things, but make the most
relative judgements of size. no effort to match; e.g., saying which stick is longer
without lining up the bases or which sheet of paper is ■ may count “units” in order to compare two things but
As a result, they begin to understand and use the bigger without superimposing be fairly casual in their repetition of units, not
everyday language of attributes and comparison used noticing gaps or overlaps; e.g., placing the first “unit”
within their home and school environment, ■ compare time spans but may not take into account away from the end when measuring length, not
differentiating between attributes that are obviously different starting times; e.g., deciding that the TV worrying about spills when measuring how much a
perceptually different. program that finished latest was on longest container holds, not stopping their claps immediately
the music stops
■ use bipolar pairs but may have difficulty with some
comparative terms; e.g., lift to decide which is heavier ■ do not necessarily expect the same “answer” each
By the end of the Emergent phase, students but say both are heavy because both hands go down time when deciding how many fit
typically:
■ may distinguish two attributes (such as tallness and ■ many not think to use unit information to answer
■ distinguish tallness, heaviness, fatness, and how much mass) but not understand that the two attributes may questions such as: Which cup holds more? Will the
things hold lead to different orders of size for a collection table slide through the door?

The Diagnostic Map includes key indications and consequences of students’

understanding and growth. This information is crucial for teachers making
decisions about their students’ level of understanding of mathematics. It
enhances teachers’ decisions about what to teach, to whom, and when to
teach it.
Each developmental phase of the Diagnostic Map has three aspects. The
first aspect describes students’ major preoccupations during that phase. At
the centre of each phase is the learning focus during that phase. This learning
results in typical thinking and behaviour patterns by the end of that phase.
Preconceptions, partial conception, or misconceptions, however, may still
exist for students at the end of the phase. This final aspect provides the
learning challenges and teaching emphases as students move to the next phase.

Diagnostic Tasks
First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement provides a series of short, focused
Diagnostic Tasks in the Course Book. These tasks have been validated through
extensive research with students and help teachers locate individual students
on the Diagnostic Map.

How Do Teachers Advance This Learning?

To advance student learning, teachers identify the big mathematical ideas or
key understandings of the outcomes or curricular goals. Teachers plan learning
activities to develop these key understandings. As learning activities provide
students with opportunities and support to develop new insights, students
begin to move to the next developmental phase of mathematical thinking.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 39

6
Key Understandings

2
Key Understanding 1
The Key Understandings are the cornerstone of First Steps in Mathematics. The 5

8
0
For certain types of shapes we can describe the relationship
between the lengths of their edges and their perimeters, areas,

Key Understandings: and volumes.

The focus of this Key Understanding is students’ understanding of commonly

used measurement formulas. For certain types of two dimensional shapes
(e.g., rectangle, triangle, circle) we know the relationships between specified

■ describe the mathematical ideas, or concepts, which students need to

lengths and the perimeter. We also know the relationship between specified
lengths and the area. For certain types of three dimensional shapes (e.g.,
rectangular prism, cylinder) we know the relationships between specified
lengths and the surface area and volume. Formulas are a shorthand way of
describing these relationships. The formulas are useful because they help us

know in order to achieve curricular goals to work out perimeters, areas, and volumes more easily than measuring them
directly.
Memorizing formulas is less important than understanding the
relationships involved. Students need experiences over an extended period
of time to understand these relationships. In particular, they will need to
build up their understanding of the structure and use of rectangular arrays and

■ explain how these mathematical ideas form the underpinnings of the

how they link to multiplication (see Background Notes, page 22).
Students should investigate measurement relationships in a range of
ways, developing their own short cuts for solving practical problems and
investigating patterns in tables and graphs. For example, they could make a
graph that shows the circumference of circular lids of various diameters.
The points should, theoretically, lie on a line, but are unlikely to fit exactly

mathematics curriculum statements because of measurement error. So long as the measurement is reasonably
precise, however, the underlying relationship will still be evident and will
enable students to predict the circumferences of other lids (and circles
generally). Students should be encouraged to confirm shortcuts. A discussion
and debate about shortcuts could be conducted to ensure student
understanding and encourage shared understandings.

■ suggest what experiences teachers should plan for students so that they
move forward in a developmentally appropriate way 26 First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Resource Book 2

■ provide a basis for the recognition and assessment of what students already
know and still need to know in order to progress along the developmental
continuum and deepen their knowledge
■ indicate the emphasis of the curriculum at particular stages

■ provide content and pedagogic advice to assist with planning the

curriculum at the classroom and whole-school levels
The number of Key Understandings for each mathematics curricular goal
varies according to the number of “big mathematical ideas” students need to
achieve the goal.

Sample Learning Activities

Sample Learning Activities
For each Key Understanding, there are Sample Learning Activities that K–Grade 3: ★ Introduction, Consolidation, or Extension

1
Indirect Measure KU
teachers can use to develop the mathematical ideas of the Key Understanding.
Rectangular Boundaries
Have students make rectangular boundaries during imitative play and make up
stories for the whole class. For example, Queen Joanne built a fence around
her square sand castle. She put 10 posts along this side then she had to think
about how many would be along the next side because each side looked about the
same size. Or, Peter made a frame for his painting. He cut two pieces of tape the

The activities are organized into three broad groups:

same size to put along the sides, and he cut two shorter pieces of tape for the
ends.

Modelling Clay Shapes

Ask students to use cookie cutters and rolled out modelling clay to make
multiple shapes the same size and shape as the end of a small box (triangular
box, jello package). Have them stack the shapes to make a shape the same as

■ activities suitable for students in Kindergarten to Grade 3

the box (triangular box, jello package). Ask: How many layers will you (did
you) use to make the box shape?

Stacking Blocks
Invite students to stack blocks in small rectangular prism-shaped structures
such as apartment buildings and work out how many blocks they used. Ask:
How many floors (layers) are there? Help students separate the blocks to show

■ activities for students in Grades 3 to 5

how many floors. Ask: How many blocks are in each floor? How many floors
are there in the apartment building? Help students to use their calculator to add
on each floor or layer.

■ activities for students in Grades 5 to 8

If students in Grades 5 to 8 have not had enough prior experience, then

teachers may need to select and adapt activities from earlier groups. 28 First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Resource Book 2

Case Studies
The Case Studies illustrate some of the ways in which students have
responded to Sample Learning Activities. The emphasis is on how teachers
can focus students’ attention on the mathematics during the learning
activities.
CASE STUDY 1
“Did You Know?” Sections Sample Learning Activity: Grades 5–8—Lunch Boxes, page 36

Key Understanding 1: For certain types of shapes we can describe the

relationship between the lengths of their edges and their perimeters,

For some of the Key Understandings, there are “Did You Know?” sections.
areas, and volumes.

Working Towards: Measuring Phase

These sections highlight common understandings and misunderstandings TEACHER’S PURPOSE

My Grade 7 class associated the word “volume” with length by width by height,
but the students did not seem to understand what volume meant. I wanted
to draw out the mathematical relationship underpinning the formula.

that students have. Some “Did You Know?” sections also suggest diagnostic
MOTIVATION AND PURPOSE
I told the students a story about a school group going on a trip when their bus
breaks down. The students need to walk a distance and carry water back in
their lunch boxes to fill the water container that held one cubic metre. Would
they be able to carry back enough water to fill it in one trip?

activities that teachers may wish to try with their students.

After some discussion, the students decided each student would need to work
out the capacity of his or her own lunch box and then add them all. There
were plenty of dry materials in the classroom to use in determining the
capacities.

ACTION
The students worked in pairs with their empty lunch boxes. Most students
chose something to represent a unit and counted how many or how much fit in
their box. A few students used rulers to take measurements of the height,
width, and length of their boxes. We talked about what they had done and I drew
out that they had found the capacity of their boxes and the capacity was
actually the inside volume of the box.
“That’s great,” I said, “so you all know the volume inside your lunch box.”
The students nodded.
“So how does that help with our problem?”

In the flurry of activity, most students had lost sight of the original prob-
This is the basis of the lem, but now remembered, We have to add the inside volumes.
need for standard
units. Dougal then asked, “But how can we add them up if everyone used differ-
ent measuring stuff? We should all use the same thing.”

40 First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Resource Book 2

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
 How to Read the Diagnostic Map
The Diagnostic Map for Measurement has five phases: Emergent,
Matching and Comparing, Quantifying, Measuring, and Relating.
The diagram on this page shows the second phase, the Matching and
Comparing phase.

Matching and
ergent Phase Comparing Phase Quantify
Most students will enter the Matching and Most students will enter the Q
Comparing phase between 5 and 7 years of age. between 7 and 9 years of age

Phase As students move from the Emergent As students move from the
phase, to the Matching and Matching and Comparing pha
o overall appearance of size,
This part
rceptually ofthan
bigger theanother Comparing phase, they: the Quantifying phase, they:
Diagnostic
e language Map in shows
a fairly ■ may not “conserve” measures; e.g., thinking that ■ while knowing that ordering o
the olute way (big/small)
learning challengesrather moving a rod changes its length, pouring changes attributes may lead to different
ve size (bigger/smaller). Over “how much,” cutting up paper makes more surface area influenced by the more dominant
for the phase.
ir communities distinguish e.g., they may still think the ta
f bigness (or size) and make ■ may visually compare the size of two things, but make the most
. no effort to match; e.g., saying which stick is longer
without lining up the bases or which sheet of paper is ■ may count “units” in order to com
to understand and use the bigger without superimposing be fairly casual in their repet
ibutes and comparison used noticing gaps or overlaps; e.g., pl
nd school environment, ■ compare time spans but may not take into account away from the end when mea
ttributes that are obviously different starting times; e.g., deciding that the TV worrying about spills when mea
program that finished latest was on longest container holds, not stopping the
the music stops
■ use bipolar pairs but may have difficulty with some
comparative terms; e.g., lift to decide which is heavier ■ do not necessarily expect the s
ergent phase, students but say both are heavy because both hands go down time when deciding how many fi
■ may distinguish two attributes (such as tallness and ■ many not think to use unit inf
viness, fatness, and how much mass) but not understand that the two attributes may questions such as: Which cup h
lead to different orders of size for a collection, table slide through the door?
expecting the order for tallness and the order for mass
erent forms of length and to
to be the same ■ may not see the significance of u
al length distinctions; e.g.,
to compare two things and, when
all ■ while describing different attributes of the same thing let the resulting number overri
(tall, thin, and heavy) may be confused by a request judgement
airs to describe things; e.g.,
to compare two things by different attributes,
, tall—short
particularly if the comparisons lead to different orders ■ while many will have learned to
vious measurement attributes marks on a conventional rule to
■ often do not think to use counting to say how big or they often do not see the conn
tall, thin, and heavy
how much bigger; e.g., they may “weigh” something process and the repetition of un
having more or less of an by putting it into one side of a balance and smaller
This
ng else,part
e.g., of the taller
as being objects into the other side but not count the objects
Diagnostic Map
than. During the Quantifying Phas
describes students’ During the Matching and Comparing Phase Students connect the two ideas of
major preoccupations Students match in a conscious way in order to decide
the size of things and of deciding “h
come to an understanding that th
during the phase. which is bigger by familiar readily perceived and imagined repetitions of units gives
distinguished attributes such as length, mass, capacity, and enables two things to be compa
and time. They also repeat copies of objects, amounts, matching them.
and actions to decide how many fit (balance or match)
a provided object or event. As a result, they trust informatio
of units as an indicator of size and
As a result, they learn to directly compare things to this in making comparisons of ob
decide which is longer, fatter, heavier, holds more,
or took longer. They also learn what people expect
them to do in response to questions such as “How By the end of the Quantifyin
This part of the long (tall, wide or heavy, much time, much does it
dents typically:
hold)?”or when explicitly asked to measure
Diagnostic Map shows something. ■ attempt to ensure uniformity o
what students know or the unit; e.g., check that the cu
can do as a result of pencil does not change length, th
having made the major By the end of the Matching and Comparing size
phase, students typically:
conceptual shift of ■ use the representations of their u
the phase. ■ attempt to focus on a particular attribute to compare as close a match as possible,
two objects or events; e.g., how much the jar holds overlaps; e.g., choose a flexible

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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The text in the “During the phase” section describes students’ major
preoccupations, or focuses, during that phase of thinking about Measurement.
The “By the end” section of each phase provides examples of what students
typically think and are able to do as a result of having worked through the
phase.
The achievements described in the “By the end” section should be read
in conjunction with the “As students move” section. Together, these two
sections illustrate that although students might have developed a range of
important understandings as they passed through the phase, they might also
have developed some unconventional or unhelpful ideas. Both of
these sections of the Diagnostic Map are intended as a useful guide only.
Teachers will recognize more examples of similar thinking in the classroom.

How Do Students Progress Through the Phases?

Students who have passed through one phase of the Diagnostic
Map are entering the next phase. They bring behaviours and understandings
from one phase to the next. For example, the text in the “As students move
from the Emergent Phase” section describes the behaviours students bring to
the Matching and Comparing phase. This section includes the preconceptions,
partial conceptions, and misconceptions that students may have developed
along the way. These provide the learning challenges for the next phase.

Linking the Diagnostic Maps and Learning Goals

Students are unlikely to achieve full conceptual understanding unless they
have moved through certain phases of the Diagnostic Map. However, passing
through the phase does not guarantee that the concept has been mastered.
Students might have the conceptual development necessary for deepening
their understanding, but without access to a classroom program that enables
them to learn the necessary foundation concepts described in a particular
phase, they will be unable to do so.
The developmental phases help teachers interpret students’ responses in
terms of pre- and partial conceptions. If, for example, a student believes
that large objects weigh more (have a greater mass) than small objects, then
the phases can help explain what the problem might be. In this case, a
student might not “conserve” mass, and no amount of telling the students that
bigger things are not always heavier will help. The student needs multiple
experiences matching and comparing objects of different density, first holding
the objects, then placing the objects on balance scales. In this manner
students will begin to change their incorrect perceptual understanding of
bigger always being heavier—which was generally correct, so they trusted it
was always correct—to the more reliable act of testing before predicting.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 How Will Teachers Use the Diagnostic Map?
The Diagnostic Map is intended to assist teachers as they plan for
mathematics teaching and learning. The descriptions of the phases help
teachers make informed decisions about students’ understandings of the
mathematical concepts. The map will help teachers understand why students
can do some things and not others, and why some students may be having
difficulty achieving certain outcomes.
Initially, teachers may use the Diagnostic Map to extend their own knowledge
about how students typically learn mathematics. Knowing about the major
conceptual shifts in each phase and their links to mathematical learning
goals will help teachers decide which Key Understandings should be the
major focus for classroom planning.
Familiarity with the behaviours described in the phases will enhance the
informed decisions teachers make about what they observe students doing and
saying during lessons. The information obtained over time about the major
preoccupations of students informs ongoing planning. As teachers begin to
understand the typical behaviours of each phase, this planning process will
become more efficient.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Planning with First Steps in Mathematics
Using Professional Decision-Making to Plan
The First Steps in Mathematics resource books and professional development
support the belief that teachers are in the best position to make informed
decisions about how to help their students achieve conceptual understanding
in mathematics. Teachers will base these decisions on knowledge, experience,
and evidence.
The process of using professional decision-making to plan classroom
experiences for students is fluid, dependent on the situation and context,
and varies from teacher to teacher. The selection of learning activities and
appropriate focus questions will be driven by each teacher’s knowledge of
his or her students and their learning needs, the mathematics, and
mathematics-related pedagogy. The First Steps in Mathematics resource books
and professional development focus on developing this pedagogical content
knowledge.
The diagram on the next page illustrates how these components combine to
inform professional decision-making. There is no correct place to start or
finish, or process to go through. Circumstances and experience will determine
both the starting point and which component takes precedence at any
given time.
Different teachers working with different students may make different
decisions about what to teach, to whom, when and how.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 The process is about selecting activities that enable all students to learn the
mathematics described in curriculum focus statements. More often than
not, teachers’ choice of activities and focus questions will be driven by their
knowledge of their students and the mathematics. At other times, teachers
might select an activity to help them assess students’ existing knowledge or
because of the specific mathematics in the task. Whatever the starting point,
the First Steps in Mathematics resource books and professional development
will help teachers to ensure that their mathematics pedagogy is well informed.
The examples on the opposite page show some of the different ways teachers
can begin planning using First Steps in Mathematics.

Mathematics Pedagogy
Decide on the Decide on learning
mathematics activities and focus
needed to advance questions.
student learning.
Professional
Decision-Making
• knowledge
• experience
• evidence

Students
Observe students
and interpret what
they do and say.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Focusing on the Mathematics
Teachers may choose to focus on the mathematics, deciding on the
mathematics they think they need to move students on.

}
What mathematics
do my students need
to know?
What sections of First Steps in
Mathematics
Decide on the Mathematics do I look at?
mathematics ■ Key Understandings and Key
needed to Understandings descriptions
advance student
learning.

Understanding What Students Already Know

Teachers may choose to start by finding out what mathematics
their students already know.

}
What do my students know
about these mathematics
concepts? What sections of First Steps in
Mathematics do I look at?
■ Key Understandings and Key
Students
Observe students Understandings descriptions
and interpret ■ “Did You Know?” sections
what they do ■ Diagnostic Map
and say. ■ Diagnostic Tasks

Developing Students’ Knowledge

Teachers may begin by planning and implementing some
activities to develop their knowledge of students’ learning.

}
What activities will help my
students develop these
ideas? How will I draw out
the mathematical ideas from What sections of First Steps in
the learning activity? Mathematics do I look at?
■ Sample Learning Activities
■ Case Studies
Pedagogy ■ Key Understandings and Key
Decide on learn-
Understandings descriptions
ing activities and
focus questions.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 Planning
The mathematics curriculum goals and developmental phases described in
the Diagnostic Map help teachers to know where students have come from
and where they are heading. This has implications for planning. While day-
to-day planning may focus on the mathematics of particular Key
Understandings, teachers must keep in mind the learning required for
progression through the developmental phases.
If a student has reached the end of the Matching and Comparing phase,
then the majority of experiences the teacher provides will relate to reaching
the end of the Quantifying phase. However, some activities will also be
needed that, although unnecessary for reaching the Quantifying phase, will
lay important groundwork for reaching the Measuring phase and even the
Relating phase.
For example, students do not typically understand that they can partition
a rectangle into appropriate squares and use the array structure to work out
how many squares are in a rectangle, until approximately Grades 4-6 (ages
9–11). Therefore, understanding the significance of having no gaps and
overlaps when “filling” rectangular arrays is not expected for reaching the
end of the Quantifying phase, but it is for reaching the end of the Measuring
phase. Given access to an appropriate program in Measurement, most
students should be able to reach the Measuring phase, using an appropriate
array structure without gaps to work out how many squares are in a rectangle,
by Grade 6 (age 11). If students are to develop these ideas in a timely
manner, however, the ideas cannot be left until after reaching the end of the
Quantifying phase.

There are a number of reasons for this approach. First, it is expected that a
considerable number of students will enter Grade 4 having reached the end
of the Measuring phase. Second, if teachers are to wait until this time to
start teaching about partitioning a rectangle into appropriate squares, having
no gaps and overlaps, and using the array structure to work out the number
of squares in a rectangle, then it is unlikely those students would develop all
the necessary concepts and skills in a timely fashion. Third, work in Grades
4–6 should not only focus on the Measuring phase, but also provide the
groundwork for students to reach the Relating phase in the next year or
two, understanding that we can use length measurements to work out area.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Teachers, who plan on the basis of deepening the understanding of the
concepts, would think about the expected long-term learning in the early
years of schooling. They would provide experiences that lead to the learning
goals at the Measuring and Relating phases. For example, in the Same Number
of Tiles activity on pages 28 and 29, primary students are challenged to
explore a concept—same area, different perimeter—that is delved into
several years later. The students may not yet be ready to fully understand
the significance of shapes with the same area possibly having different
perimeters. It will take several years of learning experiences in a variety of
contexts to culminate in a full understanding.

Monitoring Students over Time

By describing progressive conceptual development that spans the
elementary-school years, teachers can monitor students’ individual
long-term mathematical growth as well as their long-term progress against an
external standard. This long-term monitoring is one of the reasons why a
whole-school approach is essential. For example, Sarah has reached the end
of the Quantifying phase for each of the Measurement concepts while another
student, Maria, has only just reached the Matching and Comparing phase.
By comparing Maria and Sarah’s levels against the standard, their teacher is
able to conclude that Sarah is progressing as expected, but Maria is not.
This prompts Maria’s teacher to investigate Maria’s thinking about
Measurement and to plan specific support.
However, if two years later, Sarah has not reached the end of the Relating
phase while Maria has reached the end of the Measuring phase and is
progressing well towards reaching the Relating phase, they would both now
be considered “on track” against an external standard. Sarah’s achievement
is more advanced than Maria’s, but in terms of individual mathematical
growth, Sarah appears to have stalled. Her progress may now be of greater
concern than Maria’s.

Reflecting on the Effectiveness of Planned Lessons

The fact that activities were chosen with particular mathematical learning
goals in mind does not mean that they will have the desired result.
Sometimes, students deal with an activity successfully, but they use different
mathematics than teachers anticipated. Different activities related to the
mathematics that has not been learned may need to be provided in the
future.
On other occasions, what students actually learn may not be what teachers
intended them to learn. Students may surprise teachers and cause them to
rethink the activity.
In some instances, activities, which teachers think will help students develop
particular mathematical ideas, do not generate those ideas. This can occur
even when students complete the activity as designed.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 The evidence about what students are actually thinking and doing during
their learning experiences is the most important source of professional
learning and decision-making. At the end of every activity, teachers need to
ask themselves: Have the students learned what was intended for this lesson? If
not, why not? These questions are at the heart of improving teaching and
learning. Teachers make constant professional, informed evaluations about
whether the implemented curriculum is resulting in the intended learning
goals for students. If it is not, then teachers need to change the experiences
provided.
Teachers’ decisions, when planning and adjusting learning activities as they
teach, are supported by a clear understanding of:
■ the desired mathematics conceptual goal of the selected activities

■ what progress in mathematics looks like

■ what to look for as evidence of students’ deepening understanding

When planning day-to-day lessons, it is important for teachers to appreciate

that many of the same activities will be appropriate for students who are
working within a range of developmental phases. Teachers can accommodate
the differences in understanding and development among students by:
■ asking different questions of individual students and groups of students

■ providing extension activities for selected students

■ giving particular students opportunities to do different things with the

activities

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Chapter 2
Indirect Measure
Select, interpret, and combine measurements,
measurement relationships, and formulas to determine

73
other measures indirectly.

Overall Description

8
Indirect measurement is used when direct comparison or measurement of
quantities is impossible, impractical, or simply tedious. Students choose and
use a range of methods of indirect measurement. They weigh a few pieces of
fruit at a time and add the weights because their scales will not accommodate
more than 500 g. They predict when a video will finish by taking the time
now and adding on the “length” of the film. They may also use division or
averaging to find measurements more accurate than their equipment allows;
for example, measuring the thickness of a ream of paper in order to calculate
the thickness of one sheet. They also use formulas for finding lengths, areas,
volumes, scale, and similarity; Pythagorean theorem and trigonometric ratios
for finding lengths and distances in three dimensional contexts; and rates and
derived measures such as speed and density for calculating quantities.

2
6

0 FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2

© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
21
 BACKGROUND NOTES
Structuring Rectangular Arrays
In the Background Notes for Direct Measure, the significance of an
understanding of rectangular arrays for students’ understanding of the way we
measure area was highlighted. This is closely connected to the development
of students’ understanding of the use of formula for finding area.
Rectangles such as those in diagrams (a) to (k)1 should be presented to
students. Use your judgement about whether this should occur over time or
in a concentrated period, depending on students’ previous experience and
present understanding. Each rectangle has its dimensions in centimetres.
Begin with the rectangles that give the most graphic information about the
subdivision of the rectangles and then gradually move to those that give less
information. Give students a number of problems of each type of graphic
representation, thus modelling the structuring process for them so that they
can build their capacity to do it for themselves.

1Battista,
M. 1999, The importance of spatial structuring in geometric reasoning, Teaching Children
Mathematics, November, 170-177.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 Activity Type 1
As you give a rectangle to students, help them see how a centimetre square
fits on it. Have students first predict how many square centimetres will fit and
then check their predictions with plastic or paper centimetre squares.

Activity Type 2
Later vary this, so that after students have made their predictions for the
rectangles, have them draw how they think the squares will cover the
rectangles, change their prediction if they wish, and then check with the
squares.

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 Indirect Measure:
Key Understandings Overview
Teachers will need to plan learning experiences that include and develop
the following Key Understandings (KU). These Key Understandings underpin
achievement of this family of concepts. The learning experiences should
connect to students’ current knowledge and understandings rather than to
their grade level.

Key Understanding Description

KU1 For certain types of shapes we can describe the relationship between the page 26
lengths of their edges and their perimeters, areas, and volumes.

KU2 When two objects have the same shape: page 44

■ matching angles are equal
■ matching lengths are proportional
■ matching areas are related in a predictable way
■ matching volumes are related in a predictable way

KU3 Scale drawings and models have the same shape as the page 58
original object. This can be useful for comparing and
calculating dimensions and for making judgements about
position.

KU4 We can calculate one measurement from others using relationships between page 68
quantities.

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Grade Levels— Sample Learning
Degree of Emphasis Activities Key
K-3 3-5 5-8

★★★ ★★ ★★ K-Grade 3, page 28 ★★★ Major Focus

Grades 3-5, page 30 The development of this Key
Grades 5-8, page 34 Understanding is a major focus of
planned activities.
★ ★★ ★★ K-Grade 3, page 46
Grades 3-5, page 48 ★★ Important Focus
Grades 5-8, page 51 The development of this Key
Understanding is an important focus of
planned activities.

★ Introduction, Consolidation or
K-Grade 3, page 60 Extension
★ ★★ ★★
Grades 3-5, page 61 Some activities may be planned to
Grades 5-8, page 63 introduce this Key Understanding, to
consolidate it, or to extend its
application. The idea may also arise
incidentally in conversations and
K-Grade 3, page 70 routines that occur in the classroom.
★ ★★ ★★★
Grades 3-5, page 71
Grades 5-8, page 73

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 3
5
8
0
2 Key Understanding 1

For certain types of shapes we can describe the relationship

between the lengths of their edges and their perimeters, areas,
and volumes.

The focus of this Key Understanding is students’ understanding of commonly

used measurement formulas. For certain types of two dimensional shapes
(e.g., rectangle, triangle, circle) we know the relationships between specified
lengths and the perimeter. We also know the relationship between specified
lengths and the area. For certain types of three dimensional shapes (e.g.,
rectangular prism, cylinder) we know the relationships between specified
lengths and the surface area and volume. Formulas are a shorthand way of
describing these relationships. The formulas are useful because they help us
to work out perimeters, areas, and volumes more easily than measuring them
directly.
Memorizing formulas is less important than understanding the
relationships involved. Students need experiences over an extended period
of time to understand these relationships. In particular, they will need to
build up their understanding of the structure and use of rectangular arrays and
how they link to multiplication (see Background Notes, page 22).
Students should investigate measurement relationships in a range of
ways, developing their own short cuts for solving practical problems and
investigating patterns in tables and graphs. For example, they could make a
graph that shows the circumference of circular lids of various diameters.
The points should, theoretically, lie on a line, but are unlikely to fit exactly
because of measurement error. So long as the measurement is reasonably
precise, however, the underlying relationship will still be evident and will
enable students to predict the circumferences of other lids (and circles
generally). Students should be encouraged to confirm shortcuts. A discussion
and debate about shortcuts could be conducted to ensure student
understanding and encourage shared understandings.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Links to the Phases
Phase Students who are through this phase...

Indirect Measure KU
Quantifying ■ are able to find perimeters directly or by measuring edges and
adding
■ are able to find the area of shapes by placing tiles on the shapes
and counting, but are also beginning to predict how many tiles
will cover a region by focusing upon the array structure of a
rectangle and thinking about the numbers of rows

Measuring ■ will devise a plan and explain their own shortcuts for finding the
perimeter of polygons
For example: A student may measure one side of a regular penta-
gon and multiply by five, or measure two adjacent sides of a
rectangle, and add and double
■ understand that, although they could determine the area of a

1
rectangle directly by covering it with unit squares and counting the
number of squares and part squares, they could also work out the
area of a rectangle composed of squares by thinking of it as an
array and multiplying the number of squares high by the number of
squares wide; that is, the number of rows by how many in each row
■ are able to build prisms from layers of cubes and can generalize
about the relationships between the number of cubes along the sides
and the total number of cubes in the shape
For example: A student may have found that sometimes the tallest
jar holds the most and sometimes it does not. The student may
conclude that to get the most to drink, they need to focus on the
capacity of the jar, not the height.

Relating ■ understand and use the formula for the area of a rectangle even
when the side lengths are not whole numbers (which means that
the rectangle cannot readily be thought of as an array and the
relationship is no longer intuitive), and have learned to use this
relationship to work out areas of other shapes
For example: Are able to visualize a triangle as half of a rectangle
and can rearrange a parellogram to form a rectangle of the same
area. Each of these requires students to understand that if you
join two regions or split a region, the total area will be the sum
of the parts.
■ are able to use the formula for finding the volume of a prism from
the length of its sides and break more complex shapes into prisms
to find their volume

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 Sample Learning Activities
K–Grade 3: ★ Introduction, Consolidation, or Extension
1
Indirect Measure KU

Rectangular Boundaries
Have students make rectangular boundaries during imitative play and make up
stories for the whole class. For example, Queen Joanne built a fence around
her square sand castle. She put 10 posts along this side then she had to think
about how many would be along the next side because each side looked about the
same size. Or, Peter made a frame for his painting. He cut two pieces of tape the
same size to put along the sides, and he cut two shorter pieces of tape for the
ends.

Modelling Clay Shapes

Ask students to use cookie cutters and rolled out modelling clay to make
multiple shapes the same size and shape as the end of a small box (triangular
box, jello package). Have them stack the shapes to make a shape the same as
the box (triangular box, jello package). Ask: How many layers will you (did
you) use to make the box shape?

Stacking Blocks
Invite students to stack blocks in small rectangular prism-shaped structures
such as apartment buildings and work out how many blocks they used. Ask:
How many floors (layers) are there? Help students separate the blocks to show
how many floors. Ask: How many blocks are in each floor? How many floors
are there in the apartment building? Help students to use their calculator to add
on each floor or layer.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Same Number of Tiles
Have students make many different rectangle shapes with a given number
of square tiles. Ask them to trace around their tiles to record each rectangle on
paper and use the dimensions to describe their rectangles. For example, I made

Indirect Measure KU
this one with 6 rows of 2 tiles and this one with 3 rows of 4 tiles. I used 12 tiles
each time. Have students then measure the perimeter of their rectangles with
string and compare the lengths. Ask: How many tile edges fit along the length
of string? How is it that the two pieces of string are different lengths when
you used the same number of tiles to make both rectangles? Why do you think
that happens? Will it be different again if you make another 12-tile shape?
Draw out the idea that even though there is the same number of tiles there
are different distances around the shapes.

Covering a Rectangle

1
Invite students to work out the number of tiles taken to cover a rectangle. For
example, give them multiple copies of a tile or square that exactly matches
the markings around the rectangle. Invite them to try to arrange the tiles so they
exactly cover the rectangle. Ask: How many squares does it take? How do the tiles
fit with the marks around the edge of the rectangle? (See Background Notes,
page 22, and Did You Know?, page 43.)

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 Sample Learning Activities
Grades 3–5: ★★★ Major Focus
1
Indirect Measure KU

Shortcuts for Perimeters

Have students directly measure the perimeter of various rectangles, then look
for short cuts and write down instructions that others can follow. Invite them
to share their methods and say how each is related to the sides of the rectangle.
For example, We measured the long side and the short side together and doubled
the number. Or, We did it differently. We measured the long side, made it times
two, and then added it to the short side times two. Ask: Would your method
work for all rectangles? Will it work for squares? Why? Why not?

Fencing for a Pasture

Have students work out the perimeter of rectangles when part of the border is
hidden. For example, say: The farmer wants to work out how much fencing to buy
for his rectangular pasture but can only measure part of what he needs. Ask: Can
you help him work out how much fencing he needs?

Covering a Rectangle
Extend K–Grade 3 Sample Learning Activity Covering a Rectangle, page 29, by
asking students to first predict how many tiles they think will cover the rectangle.
Invite students to use a cardboard square as a template and draw around it to
check their prediction. Ask: How many squares
cover the rectangle? How did you count them?
How would counting how many squares in
one row be helpful? How could your ruler help
you with this? (rule lines to join the marks)
(See Background Notes, page 22.)

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Incomplete Grids
Have students use incomplete grids to find the number of squares in a rectangle.
For example, show students the diagram below and say: Amina made a table. She
is covering it with decimetre square tiles. She has bought 54 tiles. Is this

Indirect Measure KU
going to be enough to cover the table? How do you know? Does knowing that
there are 12 in a row help you? How? Does knowing that there are six in a
column help you to work it out? How?

1
Picnic Blankets
Have students use incomplete grids to find the number of squares in a rectangle.
For example, say: Some students were working out how many squares there
were on the picnic blanket. Could they work it out without taking the trays
and plates off? How? How many squares are there in a row? How many squares
are there in a column? How does knowing this help you work it out? Encourage
students to share their counting, skip counting, adding or multiplying strategies
and decide which one is the quickest and easiest.

Twenty-Four Tiles
Have students construct as many different rectangles as possible with 24 tiles,
using all the tiles each time. Ask them to record each one on grid paper and in
a table, for example:
Side 1 Side 2
3 8
2 12
24 1

Have them order the rectangles so that the length of side 1 increases as they
read down. Ask: What do you notice about the pairs of numbers? (they multiply
to give 24) Why does this happen? (the number in side 1 tells you how many
tiles in one row and the number in side 2 tells you how many rows) How can we
check we have made all the possible rectangles?

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 Grades 3–5: ★★★ Major Focus
Oil Spills
Give pairs of students an 11 ⫻ 17 copy of a map showing two different oil
1

spills. Ask them to use squares of paper (2 cm2) to compare the areas of the oil
Indirect Measure KU

spills. Ask: How can we place the squares so that there are no gaps between
them? Can you use rows of squares? Can you arrange the rows into rectangles
that fit inside the shapes? How could you make the counting of the squares
easier? Help the students to move from counting all the squares to counting how
many in each row and adding the rows.

Pizza Trays
Have students carefully arrange square units in a range of shapes to find the area.
For example, ask students to measure the area of circular and rectangular pizza
trays to find out which is larger. Ask: Why is it easier to count the squares
inside the rectangular shape? Can the squares in the circular shape also be
placed into rows? How would that help you work out how many squares in the
circle? What can you do about the gaps left around the edge?

Which Pasture Is Bigger?

Have students use Base Ten plastic tiles to explore ways to work out which of
the pastures shown below is bigger. Ask: Which is easier to measure? Why? Can
you find a way to use the tiles for the triangle? How would arranging rows of
tiles in an array help? Would it be useful to imagine creating a rectangle by
joining a congruent triangle to the given triangle? How?

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Buildings
Ask students to construct solid models of buildings with cubes, telling them that
only full faces of cubes can touch each other. Have their partners work out
how many cubes have been used. Ask: Can we use addition rather than counting

Indirect Measure KU
each block separately? What could be added together? Can you see larger box
shapes within the building? How can you use your calculator to help work out
how many blocks are needed? Could multiplying help?

1
The Sealed Room
Have students use cubes to build rectangular prisms in order to work out the
volume of the prisms. For example, say: People are locked in a sealed room
4 m long, 2 m wide, and 3 m high. We need to know how much oxygen there
is, so we need to work out the volume of the room in cubic metres. Ask students
to build the room with Base Ten cubes, pretending each is a metre cube. Ask:
What is the volume of the prism? Then, say: What if they were locked in a
sealed room 3 m long by 3 m wide and 2 m high? What would the volume be?
Have students record their results in a table.

Length Width Height Volume

4m 2m 3m 24 m3
3m 3m 2m 18 m3

Invite students to explore other rooms with different dimensions and add the
information to the table. Ask: Can you see any patterns? Can you use your
calculator to find short cuts for working out the number of cubic metres? Could
you work out the volume for another room without using the cubes?

Twenty-Four Cubes
Ask students to build rectangular prisms from 24 cubes each and record the
dimensions in a table: how many cubes in a row, how many rows in one layer,
and how many layers. Ask: How do you know you have made every possible
rectangular prism? How could you work out the number of cubes in any
rectangular prism from its measurements?

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 Sample Learning Activities
Grades 3–5: ★★★ Major Focus
1
Indirect Measure KU

Three Rectangles
Give students a series of rectangles drawn to full size, but without the
measurements shown. Include whole number and fraction examples. Ask them
to work out the perimeter of each one. Ask: How did you work out the
perimeters? Do all the ways of working it out give the same result? Should
they? Why? Why not? Which ways were the easiest? Which were the most
accurate?

Sod and Rope

Extend Three Rectangles above by saying: A gardener wants you to work out
the perimeter and area of rectangular lawns for her because she needs to know
how many square metres of sod to buy and how much rope she will need to
enclose the lawns while the sod grows. Challenge students to find the easiest
way to do this. Ask: Can you find rules that will work for every rectangular
plot? What would you write down so that someone else would understand your
rules? Are your rules the same or different from others? How?

Irregular Areas
Have students look for arrays within irregular shapes to help work out the area.
For example, say: The farmer needs to find out the area of her pasture to know
how much seed to buy. Ask: How could she work out the area? Could rectangles
that fit inside the shape help with this? How? Invite students to draw the
shape onto the grid paper to help them see the arrays within. Later, ask: Could
you work it out without using grid paper?

Square Straws
Ask pairs of students to make different-sized rectangles from straws (craft
sticks, toothpicks). Invite them to describe the area of their rectangles. For
example, My rectangle is 2 straws by 4 straws and has an area of 8 square straws.
Draw out why the linear unit they chose needs to be squared. Invite students
to give their partner an area measure (e.g., 10 square toothpicks) and have

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their partner make as many rectangles as they can with that area. Ask: Why do
you need to know the unit before you can make the rectangle?

Dimension, Perimeter, or Area

Indirect Measure KU
Extend Square Straws above by having students calculate the areas and
perimeters of rectangles where the dimensions are given in standard length
units. Ask them to write their answers and explain why they needed to include
units with the numbers, and how they chose which units to use. For example,
ask: Is the area of a 4 cm by 3 cm rectangle 12, 12 squares, 12 cm, 12 square
cm or 12 cm2? What if the dimensions include fractions? How does that affect
the area?

Perimeter or Area?
Have students decide whether perimeter or area measure has been used. For

1
example, say: This piece of homework was found on the floor. Ask: What might
the questions have been? How can you tell? What did you do to check? Why can
you not say for sure whether question 2 is “What is the perimeter?” or “What
is the area?” How would seeing the units tell us for sure? (cm or cm2) Are
there any other rectangles where the perimeter and the area both have the
same number of units?

HOMEWORK Peter
Question 1.

6 cm

4 cm

Answer 20 cm
Question 2.

4 cm

4 cm

Answer 16

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 Grades 5–8: ★★★ Major Focus
House Plans
Have students use house plans drawn to a simple 1 cm to 1 m scale to work out
1

the floor area of different-shaped rooms for a purpose (how much carpet or
Indirect Measure KU

how many floor tiles would be needed to cover it). Ask: What can you do to work
out the area of the rooms? How would thinking of the rooms as separate
rectangles be helpful? What tools could you use to help? (graph paper, ruler,
scissors) How would you use the tools? Once students have worked out the
area, stimulate a class discussion by asking: Which ways were quicker and
easier? Why?

Lunch Boxes
Have students use cubes to solve volume and capacity problems, looking for
shortcuts to arrive at the total number of cubes used. For example, say: A
school bus was carrying a group of students on an excursion when it broke
down. The students had to walk a distance and carry water back in their lunch
boxes to fill the water container that held one cubic metre. Would they be able
to carry back enough water to fill it in one trip? Invite students to use cubes
to work out the capacity of their lunch boxes and encourage them to look for
shortcuts. Ask: How do the rows and layers of cubes help you think about how
many cubes fit or match? How could you use your calculator to make it easier
to count how many? How can you work out the volume if you do not have
enough cubes to fill all the box? (See Case Study 1, page 40.)

The Sealed Room

Extend The Sealed Room, page 33, by having students build some larger rooms.
Make sure there are not enough cubes to build the rooms completely. Ask: Can
you work out how many cubes you would need if you completely built the
room? Would counting rows and layers help? How? Invite students to work out
a general rule that would work for any room. Ask: How can you be sure it will
always work?

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Cubic Straws
Extend Square Straws, page 34, by asking pairs of students to build rectangular
prisms from straws (craft sticks, toothpicks) using modelling clay or joiners
for the corners. Help them describe the volume of their prisms in terms of the

Indirect Measure KU
linear unit used (cubic straws, cubic craft sticks, cubic toothpicks). For example,
My prism is 2 straws high, 2 straws across and 3 straws long and its volume is 12
cubic straws. Ask: How is a 1-straw cube (1-craft stick cube, 1-toothpick cube)
related to your prism? What do you mean when you say the volume is 12 cubic
straws (craft sticks, toothpicks)? (If I had 12 wooden cubes, each one straw
wide, I could build a prism exactly the same size and shape as my straw skeleton.)
Why do we say cubic straws, rather than just straws when giving the volume?
Could you make a prism that is not a cube, but has a volume of 1 cubic straw?
What if you could cut some of your straws in half? What might the dimensions
of the prism be? Later, have students use standard length units to describe

1
the dimensions of rectangular prisms and to calculate and record volume.

Fractional Dimension
Extend Lunch Boxes, page 36, and The Sealed Room, page 36, to include some
prisms with one fractional dimension. For example, say: A room is 3 m long,
4 m wide, and 2.5 m high. How can we work out the volume of the room?
What would a half layer be like? Can your general rule still be used?

Triangle in a Rectangle
Have students draw a rectangle around a triangle. Invite them to compare the
area inside the triangle to the area outside. Ask: What do you notice? Try other
triangles that can be enclosed by the same-sized rectangle. Ask: Is the area
outside the triangle the same as the area inside the triangle for others as well?
What is the area of the rectangle? How could you use the area of the rectangle
to easily work out the area of the triangles? Can you write down a general rule
that others could use to work out the area of a triangle from the area of the
rectangle it will fit inside? Have students use the general rules of other students
to see if they work. Ask: Can you explain why the general rules work?

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 Grades 5–8: ★★★ Major Focus
Five Triangles
Have students investigate the areas of different triangles with the same height
1

and base. For example, say: Jeremy has a new rule that says, All triangles drawn
Indirect Measure KU

on the same base and with the same height have the same area. Ask: Does it
work? Always? Must it? Can you find a reason why? How does it help you work
out the area of triangles? Invite students to cut and rearrange the parts of
each triangle so that it fits into a rectangle that has the same width as the
triangle’s base. Ask: Are all the rectangles the same height? Compare this to the
height of the original triangles (should be half the height). How could you use
what you know about the area of rectangles to work out the area of triangles?

Rearranging Parallelograms
Have students cut and rearrange parallelograms to make rectangles. Invite them
to investigate relationships between length measures on the parallelograms
and on the related rectangles. Ask: Can you work out a formula (set of rules) that
others can use to calculate the area of any parallelogram? Encourage students
to use what they know about finding the area of a rectangle.

Rearranging Trapezoid
Extend Rarranging Parallellograms to discover the area of a trapezoid. Have
students cut and rearrange trapezoids to create parallelograms and triangles. They
can also rearrange two trapezoids to create a parallelogram with twice the area.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Circles
Ask students to find the diameter and circumference of circular objects (lids,
plates, wheels) with string or thin tape. Have them display their results by
placing diameter lengths beside the circumference length for each object.

Indirect Measure KU
Ask: What do you notice about the number of diameters in each case? (the
circumference is just over three diameters)

1
Have students measure their strips and record the diameter and circumference
for each object. Combine the information and draw a class graph of all the
results with diameter on the horizontal axis and circumference on the vertical
axis. Ask: Can you see a pattern in the points? (Ideally the points would be
exactly on a line, but in practice students’ measurements will often vary a
little.) Draw out that the points are fairly close to being on a line. Draw the line.
Invite students to measure the diameter of a different circle. Use the graph to
estimate its circumference. Ask: How could you check this on the circle? How
could you use your calculator to check the result?

Relationship between diameter and circumference

40.0

35.0

30.0
Circumference (cm)

The jar measured

25.0
8.5 cm across the top, so the
circumference should be
20.0
about 27 cm.
15.0

10.0

5.0

0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Diameter (cm)

Fringing
Extend Circles above by asking students to use the relationship that the
circumference is three and a bit times the diameter to estimate quantities. For
example, say: The diameter of a circular lampshade (cushion) is 35 cm. How much
fringe (braiding) will I need to go around its edge?

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
 CASE STUDY 1
Sample Learning Activity: Grades 5–8—Lunch Boxes, page 36

Key Understanding 1: For certain types of shapes we can describe the

relationship between the lengths of their edges and their perimeters,
areas, and volumes.

Working Towards: Measuring Phase

TEACHER’S PURPOSE
My Grade 7 class associated the word “volume” with length by width by height,
but the students did not seem to understand what volume meant. I wanted
to draw out the mathematical relationship underpinning the formula.

MOTIVATION AND PURPOSE

I told the students a story about a school group going on a trip when their bus
breaks down. The students need to walk a distance and carry water back in
their lunch boxes to fill the water container that held one cubic metre. Would
they be able to carry back enough water to fill it in one trip?
After some discussion, the students decided each student would need to work
out the capacity of his or her own lunch box and then add them all. There
were plenty of dry materials in the classroom to use in determining the
capacities.

ACTION
The students worked in pairs with their empty lunch boxes. Most students
chose something to represent a unit and counted how many or how much fit in
their box. A few students used rulers to take measurements of the height,
width, and length of their boxes. We talked about what they had done and I drew
out that they had found the capacity of their boxes and the capacity was
actually the inside volume of the box.
“That’s great,” I said, “so you all know the volume inside your lunch box.”
The students nodded.
“So how does that help with our problem?”

In the flurry of activity, most students had lost sight of the original prob-
This is the basis of the lem, but now remembered, We have to add the inside volumes.
need for standard
units. Dougal then asked, “But how can we add them up if everyone used differ-
ent measuring stuff? We should all use the same thing.”

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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All the students agreed that this was a good idea. There was then some heated
discussion about what to use, with some students favouring materials that I had previously
could be poured, such as rice, because they were easy to use and others favouring decided that, if the
cubes because they stacked. Finally, to my relief, the cube brigade won, using majority favoured a

Indirect Measure KU
the argument that even if the students worked out how many scoops of rice there material such as rice,
were altogether, they would not know how many scoops was equal to a cubic they would use it.
metre. There would not have
been enough material
and so students would
CONNECTION AND CHALLENGE have run into trouble
But still there was a problem. There was not enough of any one material for
when they tried to
everyone to use! The challenge was to come up with a way to find the volume
measure all the lunch
inside their lunch boxes without having enough cubes to fill it.
boxes. I thought I
Most students used up all their blocks and then looked for ways of calculating might use that to

1
how many more would fit. persuade them to use
I noticed that quite a number of pairs had carefully counted the number in cubes. If, however,
the bottom. I stopped the class and asked Dougal and Olivia to explain what they they came up with a
were doing. Dougal said that they had 220 on the bottom and thought that each good strategy using
layer of cubes would be the same so they just needed to work out how many their chosen material,
layers. I asked the students how many others were trying that approach and a I would have returned
number were. to cubes in a follow-
up lesson. That the
“How will you work out how many layers?” I asked.
students decided to
“By seeing how many go up the side,” several students suggested. use 1-cm cubes simply
“So, Olivia, how many go up the side of your lunchbox?” I asked. meant we reached the
point I wanted more
“Five,” she said. I noticed that Olivia actually needed six layers and had not quickly.
counted the bottom layer in her five going up the side.
“So, what will you do with the five?” I asked
Olivia said she would add on five more lots of 220.
I asked the students to help Olivia and work out the volume for her. The class
all agreed that 1320 cubes would fit in her lunch box. “Is there a shortcut for
that?” I asked.
“You could multiply,” several students replied.
I asked them to multiply and, of course, some multiplied by five while others
multiplied by six, so that when I asked what the answer was, there were two
different responses. I left it to one of the confident students to explain why you
needed to multiply by six.
“There are six lots altogether, six lots of 220.”
“So, what does the 220 tell you, Olivia?” I asked.
“How many in the bottom,” Olivia said.
“And what does the six tell you?” I asked.
“How many lots of 220,” she replied.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
 DRAWING OUT THE MATHEMATICAL IDEA
I rephrased Olivia’s responses. “Olivia has said that the 220 is how much in a
layer and the six is the number of layers.” I then asked, “So, if we want to
find the inside volume of our boxes, what do we need to do?”
1

Jodie replied, “Find out how many cubes it takes to cover the bottom and then
Indirect Measure KU

how many layers of cubes you would need to fill it and then multiply them.”
I wrote this on the board to give it emphasis and beside it I wrote:
V = number in one layer ⫻ number of layers
Students who had filled more than one layer began moving blocks into a stack
up the side. I had noticed earlier that Hanadi and Justin had placed cubes
inside their lunch box along two adjoining edges then made a stack in a corner.
After most students had worked out the volume of their two boxes using the
layers, I asked Hanadi to explain their approach.
“We only had to multiply the rows together, then multiply the answer with the
height.”
“Would this work for all of the lunch boxes?” I asked. “Test it on your boxes.”
Students reached for their calculator to do the multiplication.
“Yes, it does,” agreed most.
“So, why does it work for all of the different boxes?” I asked.
“Well,” said Hanadi, “you are really finding out how many in the bottom layer
and then how many layers you have.” Others agreed. “Yes, you just multiply how
many in one layer by the number up the side.”
“What does this have to do with how many in a layer?” I asked.
Dougal offered, “You are just multiplying the sides.” There were a number of nods
of agreement—the class had previously found areas of rectangles based on
square grids.
I wrote on the blackboard:
V = side 1 ⫻ side 2 ⫻ number of layers
and asked them to tell me again what the underlined parts showed.
“Hey,” said Ariel, “that is like volume is equal to length times width times
height that we did last year.”
“Yes,” I said, “it is the same. Side 1 could be the length and side 2 could be the
width. The volume of a rectangular box can always be worked out by multiplying
the length of the two sides by the height of the box.”
The students then used this method to work out the inner volumes of their
lunch boxes, which were recorded on the board and then added by the students.
At this point, several students realized that they had worked out the volume in
cubic centimetres and had to decide whether they had more or less than a
cubic metre. The lesson continued.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 Did
Show students a rectangle marked as shown below and a square cut out
that exactly matches the markings so that, for this example, seven squares
fit across the rectangle and three fit down. Ask them to predict how many
You?
Know

Indirect Measure KU
squares they need to cover the rectangle. Do not initially give students a
square to place or draw around, although later they should check their
prediction.

We often assume that students can visualize the arrays in rectangular

arrangements, but a surprising number have difficulty with tasks such as
this.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 3
5
8
0
2 Key Understanding 2

When two objects have the same shape:

■ matching angles are equal
■ matching lengths are proportional
■ matching areas are related in a predictable way
■ matching volumes are related in a predictable way

The focus of this Key Understanding is the development of students’

understanding of what we mean mathematically when we say that two figures
or two objects are the same shape and of some of the basic mathematical
relationships involved (see Background Notes, page 22).
When we use a photocopier to enlarge or reduce something, the essential
idea is that the copy should look the same as the original. Thus, the shape of
the copy must be the same as the shape of the original. This is achieved by
ensuring that angles on the copy are the same as matching angles on the
original, and that lengths on the copy are a fixed multiplier of matching
lengths on the original. This fixed multiplier is called by different names in
different contexts: the scale factor, scale ratio, enlargement factor,
magnification. If we want to double the dimensions of the original, we use
a scale factor (multiplier) of ⫻ 2 (or 200%). Every length of the original is
then doubled, while the angles are kept the same. If we want to halve the
dimensions of the original, we enter ⫻ 0.5 or 50% of the original, thus
setting the photocopier to halve all lengths. If we want it to be one-and-a-
quarter times as big, we enter 1.25 or 125%. If the scale factor is bigger than
1, the copy (or scaled version) will be bigger; if the scale factor is less than
1, the scaled version will be smaller.
When we produce a copy, we are sometimes surprised at the size of what
we produce. For example, when we make a half-sized copy of the word dog,
using a 50% scale, the copy we produce may seem much smaller than half.

dog This is because the area of the copy will be one quarter the size and so look
much less than half the size.

dog

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 The effect can be even more surprising for a three dimensional object.
When we halve its dimensions, all areas are reduced to one quarter, but the
volume is reduced to one eighth.
Activities should be provided that help students to develop an

Indirect Measure KU
understanding that when we enlarge or reduce figures and objects we change
the size without changing the shape. This means that the angles do not
change, but all the lengths change by the same multiple (called the scale
factor). Older students should begin to investigate the effect of scale changes
(e.g. tripling all the length dimensions) on the perimeter, the area, and the
volume of shapes. This will lead, during grades 7 and 8, to the generalization
that, if two objects have the same shape:
■ each angle on the first will be equal to the matching angle
on the second

2
■ each length on the first will be a fixed multiple (say, times k)
of the matching length on the second
■ each area on the first will be k 2 times the matching area on
the second
■ each volume on the first will be k 3 times the matching
volume on the second

Links to the Phases

Phase Students who are through this phase...
Quantifying ■ show a general sense of scale when selecting things for a purpose
■ may adjust items for a model they are building
For example: A student may say, “It needs to be smaller to
look right.”

Measuring ■ use grids to enlarge and reduce in specified ways to produce

systematic distortions
■ understand that for a copy to look the same as an original all lengths
must be multiplied or divided by the same amount (for example, all
halved or all tripled) and angles must remain the same
■ are able to predict the length of lines on the copy from the length
of lines on the original

Relating ■ are able to use grids and arrangements of cubes to investigate and
draw conclusions about the effect of scaling linear dimensions on
the perimeter, area and volume of figures and objects
■ work out that if an arrangement of four cubes is scaled up by a
factor of three (that is, made three times as big in each direction),
then 27 times as many cubes will be needed; that is, 108 cubes

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 Sample Learning Activities
K–Grade 3: ★ Introduction, Consolidation, or Extension
2
Indirect Measure KU

Enlarging
Have students use small square tiles to create a shape or design. Then, have
them copy the shape or design, making each dimension twice the size, by
encouraging them to first look at one tile and make another shape that is two
tiles wide. Ask: How many tiles will you need to get it to be a square? Why
are two tiles not enough? (to make it square you have to double the height as
well) Encourage students to look at enlarging their design by making every
unit square into a bigger square that is two squares wide and two squares high.

Mothers and Babies

Show students mother and baby animal pictures and have them describe the
differences between them. Ask: Is the baby an exact copy of the mother? Which
parts of the baby’s body will change the most? Which baby animals are almost
the same shape as their parents?

Sweaters and Chairs

Have students compare objects that vary in size (e.g., a baby’s sweater, a
child’s sweater and an adult’s sweater; a Grade 1 chair, a Grade 4 chair and a
Grade 7 chair). For example, ask: How are the sweaters almost the same? How
can you tell they are all sweaters? (the shape is almost the same) How are the
sweaters different?

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Graduated Sets
Have students use graduated sets of objects for imitative free play (sets of
mixing bowls, sets of pots and pans, plates, measuring cups, measuring spoons,
nesting cups, baskets). Mix the objects together and ask students to sort them

Indirect Measure KU
into sets to pack away. Focus the discussion on the fact that the items are
almost the same shape but different sizes. Ask: How do you know all the bowls
go together? This pot is the same size as this bowl, so why not put it with the
bowls? What is the same about all the bowls?

Craft Stick Squares

Have students make a square using four craft sticks. Ask them to make a large
copy of the square using two or three craft sticks for each side. Display the
range of sizes. Ask: Are the shapes the same (different)? How? What did James
do to the first square to make this square? Did he do that to only one side? Why?

2
Extend this to other rectangles to draw out the idea that to keep the shape
every side must be changed in the same way (e.g., if one side is doubled, all sides
must be doubled).

Photocopy Enlargements
Cut 8-1/2 ⫻ 11 sheets of paper into quarters and have groups of students draw
some pictures on the quarter sheets. Use the photocopier to enlarge each twice.
Return the original and the two enlargements to the students and ask them to
compare the pictures in their groups. Ask: What has changed? What has stayed
the same?

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 Sample Learning Activities
Grades 3–5: ★★ Important Focus
2
Indirect Measure KU

Triangles and Other Shapes

Have students use pattern blocks to explore the effect of enlarging by doubling
and tripling dimensions. For example, use the triangles to make a larger triangle
with each side twice as long as a single triangle. Ask: How many triangles did
you need to make the sides of the triangle twice the size? Was it twice as many?
Why not? Ask students to make a shape that is three times the size of the
single triangle. (a trapezoid) Ask: What part of the shape is three times as big?
Then ask students to make a shape with all sides three times as big as all sides
of the triangle. Ask: How many triangles did you use? Was it three times as
many? Why not? How many times as many was it? Invite students to work out
how the area measures change when they double and triple the side lengths
of the blue rhombus and the square.

Enlarging a Design
Have students use straight lines to draw a design on a four-by-five grid that has
1-cm squares. Then have them make a copy on another four-by-five grid that has
2-cm squares. Invite students to compare the lengths (including diagonals),
areas, and angles. Ask: What has changed? What has stayed the same? How
have the lengths changed? How has the area changed? Later, include designs with
curved lines. Ask: How has the length of the curved lines changed? How has the
area changed?

Reducing a Design
After activities like Enlarging a Design above, ask students to say what changes
when the straight-line and curved-line designs are reduced. Ask: If the length
of the straight lines are half as long, what do you think will happen to the
length of the curved lines? How has the area changed?

Comparing Enlargements and Reductions

Have students compare their enlargements and reductions from Enlarging a
Design and Reducing a Design above. Ask: Are the changes to each measurement
the same (different)? How? Draw out that by doubling the lengths, the area is
always multiplied by four. If the lengths are halved, the area is one quarter.

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Figures on a Grid
Give students figures on a grid that are enlargements or distortions of each
other. Have them circle the enlargement that is the same shape but bigger
(smaller). Discuss reasons for their choices. For example, That one is not the same

Indirect Measure KU
shape, that one has been stretched and that one has been squashed. Use a
variety of simple, everyday shapes and ask students to decide which ones are the
same shape but bigger (smaller).

2
Graphics
Invite students to use a graphics software to create images. Ask them to predict
how the image will change when it is dragged from a corner or from the
horizontal or vertical edge. Ask: What measurements are changing when it is
dragged from the top (side, corner)? Is it an enlargement (reduction) or a
distortion?

Making Cubes
Invite students to create a cube using plastic interlocking squares or squares of
card taped together. Then, have them create another cube that is “twice the
size.” Ask: What does twice the size mean? Draw out the ambiguity. Ask: Is
it a cube with sides twice as long? Is it a cube that takes up twice as much
space? Say: Suppose we mean we want a cube with sides twice as long. How
many pieces were needed for the original cube? How many will be needed
for the bigger cube? Why did we need four times as many instead of just twice
as many?

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 Grades 3–5: ★★ Important Focus
Wooden Cubes
Repeat Making Cubes, page 49, using wooden cubes. Invite students to put out
2

one cube and then make another cube that is twice the size of the first. Invite
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students to predict how many cubes they will need, then test their prediction.
Ask: Why were four cubes not enough? Why did you need eight times as many
wooden cubes?

Chair Factory
Have students say how doubling the linear dimension changes the volume. For
example, say: A factory manager had an order for a chair twice as big as this
classroom chair. What measurements would you have to make? Ask students to
make a three dimensional model of a chair using no more than about five cubes.
Then have them double all the linear dimensions. Ask: How has the volume
changed? Is the amount of change the same for different model chairs?

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Sample Learning Activities
Grades 5–8: ★★ Important Focus

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Enlarging a Picture
Photocopy a cartoon drawing onto square graph paper and have students
enlarge it using a grid. Ask: If you double the length of each side, what happens
to the area? What happens to the area when you triple the length of the sides?
Can you predict what the area would be if you enlarged the dimensions four
times? What changes (stays the same) in the enlargements? What is it about the
shape that stays the same in each enlargement? Draw out that the lengths
and areas change in a predictable way, but the size of the angles always stay

2
the same.

Reducing a Picture
Extend Enlarging a Picture above by giving students a different, large picture on
graph paper and asking them to reduce it. Ask: When you halve the length of
each side, what happens to the area? What do you think will happen to the area
if you reduce the dimensions to one third of their original size? What about the
angles? Encourage students to test their predictions.

Changing Shape
Have students say what happens to the angles, lengths, and areas of shapes
when the two linear dimensions are changed by different amounts. For example,
invite students to draw a straight-line sketch of a fish on graph paper. Then, ask
them to make the fish twice as long and twice as high. Invite them to measure
the lengths of the two fish. Ask: How do matching lengths compare? Then,
ask them to work out the area of the body of each fish. Ask: How do they
compare? Have them measure the angles.
Ask: How do they compare? Have students
make another fish the same height as the
original, but twice as long. Ask: How is the
last fish the same as (different from) the
original fish? Invite students to compare
the matching lengths of the fish. Ask: How
do they compare? What happens to the
area? How have the angles changed? What
differences do changes to angles make to
shapes?

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 Grades 5–8: ★★ Important Focus
Flags
Have students each make a transparency of a simple geometric flag design.
2

Use an overhead projector to project their designs onto large sheets of paper and,
Indirect Measure KU

in some cases, turn the projector so that it is at an angle to the wall, distorting
the image. Invite students to trace around their images so that each student has
their original design and its enlargement (or, in some cases, its distorted
enlargement). Have students compare the original transparencies with the
copies. Ask: What is the same? What is different? Have you considered angles,
lengths, and area? (See Case Study 2, page 54.)

Hexagons and Trapezoids

Extend the Triangles and Other Shapes, page 48, by having students use pattern
blocks to make enlarged copies of the hexagon and trapezoid, doubling and
tripling the dimensions. (You will need to use triangles to complete the enlarged
shapes.) Ask: If you make a larger hexagon by doubling the dimensions, how
many of the small hexagons would match the area of the larger hexagon? What
if you triple the lengths of the sides? Can you predict how many of the small
hexagons will match the area of the tripled hexagon? How does this fit with what
you know about doubling and tripling the sides of other shapes? Will this work
with trapezoids?

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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Using a Photocopier
Have students draw a curved, closed shape on a sheet of paper (like a curvy
puddle), then enlarge (reduce) it for them on a photocopier using an
enlargement (reduction) ratio of their choice. Invite them to compare their

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original with the copy. When comparing matching lengths, ask: How does it
relate to the enlargement (reduction) ratio? Have students use graph paper to
work out the area of each shape. Ask: How does the change in area relate to the
enlargement (reduction) ratio?

Chair Factory
Extend Chair Factory, page 50, by tripling the linear dimensions. Record the
number of pieces in the original chair and the enlarged chair. Produce a table
from the results of the entire class. Ask: Is there a consistent relationship
between the number of blocks in the original chair and the number in the

2
tripled chair?

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
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 CASE STUDY 2
Sample Learning Activity: Grades 5–8—Flags, page 52
Key Understanding 2:
When two objects have the same shape:
• matching angles are equal
• matching lengths are proportional
• matching areas are related in a predictable way
• matching volumes are related in a predictable way
Working Towards: Measuring Phase and Relating Phase

TEACHER’S PURPOSE
My Grade 7 class had been enlarging and reducing figures using grids and had
become quite skilled at it. They knew that on their grid enlargements each line
increased in the same ratio and the angles did not change. Using grids meant,
however, that the enlargement factors were always numbers like 2 or 3 or 1/2—
a highly structured situation. I was not convinced that students really understood
what it meant to be the same shape mathematically and how this related to
enlargements and reductions.

MOTIVATION
Several days earlier, students had produced a simple flag design. I had given each
of them a half-sheet of acetate to draw it on so they could show it to the class
enlarged using the overhead projector. The day before my planned lesson, I
turned on the overhead projector, and one at a time throughout the day, students
put their flag on the projector, then traced the image produced on the wall on
sheets of newsprint, which I had pinned up. The idea was that this would act
as the template for making an actual flag in their art and technology lessons.
During the day, I casually moved the projector so that the size of the images
varied, but sometimes I pulled it around so that it was not square with the
My intention here was wall and so produced a distorted image. My students sit in groups, and I made
to provide some sure that there was a mix of proper enlargements and distortions for each group
conflict for students of students.
as the distorted
images would not
have matching angles
CONNECTION AND CHALLENGE
The next day, I asked the students to get out the small (acetate) and large
equal and matching
(newsprint) copies of their flags and asked the apparently simple question,
lengths proportional.
“What stays the same and what changes?”
Distorted images are
not the same shape. Students volunteered such things as, “They look the same, but different sizes”
and, “The sides all go up the same amount.”

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I asked the students to think about the enlargements they had done with grids
and the sorts of things they had investigated there. The students suggested
angle, length, number of squares, area. I wrote these on the board. I then
challenged the students to systematically investigate the relationship between
the small and large versions of their flag so that they could report to each Is there a relationship

Indirect Measure KU
other. between matching
angles on your two
versions? If there is,
ACTION what is it?
My students were used to such activities and quickly started working. Because
the original was on a transparency, they compared matching angles easily by
superimposing. Is there a relationship
between matching
“Be very accurate,” I said occasionally. “Are you sure?” I asked, when students lengths on your two
started immediately to say that the angles did not change. versions? If there is,

2
Within a few minutes, one or two students who had the distorted versions what is it?
started to get uneasy, although a couple of others did not notice—either
because they checked too few angles or because they were a bit casual with their Is there a relationship
superimposition and their distortions were not too great. I spoke quietly to between matching
some who were concerned and suggested they mark the angles that were equal areas on your two
and those that were not. versions? If there is,
Although they had not finished with lengths and area, I drew the class together what is it?
to talk about angle. “What did you find?” she asked.
Immediately students started to volunteer that the angles were the same. There
was a chorus of agreement. I turned to one of the students who I knew had a
distortion, “Yolanta, do you agree?”
“Sometimes,” Yolanta said.
When I asked her what she meant, she held up her newsprint, pointed in turn
at several angles and said, “These were close but these were bigger.”
“Well,” I challenged the class, “Many of you seem confident that the angles must
stay the same, but Yolanta says hers were not. Who is right?”
A number of students then suggested that Yolanta’s copying or measuring may
have been incorrect, to which Yolanta objected. I asked Yolanta to hold up
her original and her enlargement and as she did so Yolanta commented that it
did not look right, but she had copied it properly. I asked whether any one
else had found what Yolanta found and whether their copies also looked odd.
A number of other students offered their own examples.
I then relented and asked Yolanta to bring her transparency to the front. She
put it on the overhead projector and I asked the class to watch carefully. I
began with the projector correctly positioned in front of the wall and then
gradually moved it at an angle. The image on the wall changed shape; that is,
it became more and more distorted. As the students began to realize what had
happened, I admitted that I had set them up by moving the overhead projector
the day before.

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 DRAWING OUT THE MATHEMATICAL IDEA
I spent some time drawing out from the students that the point of an overhead
projector was that what was on the screen should look the same, only bigger,
and that things look the same when they have the same shape. If they do not
2

have the same shape, they look distorted (odd, lopsided, skewed).
Indirect Measure KU

I asked the students to look at their group’s enlarged flags and decide which
ones looked right (the same shape) and which looked distorted. The class then
went around the groups one at a time and found that, as a rule, it was the
people who had distorted copies who had found that their angles did not quite
match. The class concluded the following together:
If two figures have the same shape, matching angles will be the
same.

If matching angles are not the same, the figures are not the same
shape.

CONNECTION AND CHALLENGE

I asked students to return to investigating the original question about length
One of the difficulties
but taking into account which newsprint flags were enlargements and which were
for students here is
distortions.
that they will often
have formed the mis-
taken idea that all
figures in a given
class have the same
shape; for example,
they may think that
all rectangles are the
same shape.

This casual use of the

term same shape can
be quite confusing.
We often refer to all
rectangles as the same
shape, but really
mean they are in the
same class of shapes.
The first two of these
rectangles are the
same shape but the
second two are not.

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I suggested to students that they work out the ratios between matching lengths
for six or seven different parts of the flag as accurately as they possibly could. For figures to be
They were then to decide whether they were all the same and whether there was the same shape,
a difference between the enlargements and distortions. the following must

Indirect Measure KU
Most students were fairly confident that all the lengths would increase by the both be true:
same amount, but this did not always translate into knowing that they needed • matching angles
to compute a ratio—that is, to divide. Measuring, deciding what computation must be equal
to do, and computing accurately in order to find the ratio between matching • matching lengths
lengths was a challenge for many students. This became the topic of the next must be
few lessons. proportional.

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 3
5
8
0
2 Key Understanding 3

Scale drawings and models have the same shape as the original
object. This can be useful for comparing and calculating
dimensions and for making judgements about position.

As suggested for Key Understanding 2, when two figures or objects have

the same shape, we can predict the relationship between matching lengths,
areas, and volumes on the two shapes. It is these mathematical relationships
that make scale drawings, plans, maps, and models useful. A scale model of
the three dimensional object will look like the original, only smaller or
bigger, and similarly, a scale drawing of a two dimensional figure will look like
the original. Often scale drawings give us two dimensional snapshots of
three dimensional things, however. For example, maps and plans give a
bird’s eye view and only represent some features of the real thing. The focus
of this Key Understanding is on the measurement involved in interpreting,
using, and making scale drawings and models.
In the early years, there is little distinction between this Key
Understanding and Key Understanding 2. Students should build on their
intuitive ideas about scale with the emphasis being on what looks right but is
bigger or smaller. For example, students may match component parts according
to a rough scale (e.g., This chair is for the baby bear) and attempt to make
models of familiar things, discussing how they could make it look right (e.g.,
It does not look right because the wheels are too small for the car). Later, they
should build scenes (dioramas, model farms, dollhouses) to an intuitive scale,
also asking whether it looks right and, if not, deciding how to improve it.
During the middle and later years, there should be a gradual development
from a very intuitive feeling for scale to the somewhat more formal use with
whole numbers or unit fractions as scale factors. There are two aspects to
this Key Understanding. First, students should learn to interpret and use
the information provided by scale drawings, plans, maps, and models to
make decisions such as whether the house will fit on the block, how far it is
between the two towns, what the shortest route is and if, on average, an
adult is 1.8 m tall, about how tall that building is likely to be.

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Second, students should produce scale drawings, plans, maps and models in
order to provide information to others and to make decisions about such
things as the arrangement of furniture in their classroom, stage props for
their play, or how a flag design they have in mind will look when made.

Indirect Measure KU
They should attempt to make accurate scale drawings of simple figures and
objects, such as a plan of the school to provide to visitors, or a storage box.
To produce a scale drawing or model, they will need to decide what
measurements to take on the original. This may require them not only to
consider lengths but also angles. It is important for students to have the
opportunity to make such decisions for themselves so that they learn what
can go wrong when they take insufficient or unhelpful measurements.

Links to the Phases

3
Phase Students who are through this phase...
Quantifying ■ attend to scale informally when interpreting and producing maps,
plans, drawings, or models
■ realize that they can get a sense of comparative distances and
lengths from maps, plans, and models produced by others
■ attempt to adjust sizes to get their own maps, plans, drawings, or
models to look to scale

Measuring ■ use simple scale factors to calculate and estimate measurements

For example: Given a picture or object and asked to make it three
times as big or one third as big, a student will work out the size of
the parts in the scaled version.
■ are able to work out what measurements to take when making
straightforward scale drawings, maps, or plans

Relating ■ are able to compute the scale factor between two different-sized
versions of a figure or object
■ are able to use data in a map, plan, or photograph together with
their everyday knowledge to estimate scale factors and use the data
to answer other questions about the objects represented

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 Sample Learning Activities
K–Grade 3: ★ Introduction, Consolidation, or Extension
3
Indirect Measure KU

Model Farm
Give students a three dimensional model of a town or farm that has some parts
of it to scale and others not. For example, in a model farm, include a plastic duck
that is as big as the shed, and a model tractor that is as small as the dog.
Alternatively, ask students to construct their own models. Ask students to
identify what looks right and what does not. Ask: Why do some things look
the right size and others do not? How could we fix those parts that do not
look right? Encourage comparative language (e.g., the tractor has to be bigger
than the dog because real tractors are much bigger than real dogs).

Teddy Bear
When students are illustrating stories such as The Three Bears, give them a
teddy bear to copy. Before drawing, focus the
students on the shapes they can see in the ears,
face, body, and legs. Ask students to draw Father
Bear first, then to redraw it smaller to be Mother
Bear and smaller again to be Baby Bear. Ask: What
did you need to think about when you made
Mother Bear’s and Baby Bear’s heads? What about
the ears? How are they different on Baby Bear?
What is the same about the ears in all three
drawings?

Different-Sized Dolls
Show two small dolls or action figures and ask students to find various items that
are the right size for each model to use. For example, ask: Why would this
marker cap make a good glass for this doll? Why do you think it would be too
small for that action figure? Would the thimble make a good wastepaper basket?
Why? Why not?

Classroom Plan
Have students draw bird’s eye view plans of the classroom to show different
possible arrangements of desks. Ask them to first build a three dimensional
model using blocks or building bricks for furniture, then develop a two
dimensional plan from their model. Ask: Would there be enough room to walk
between your desks? Should the desks be larger or smaller than the computer
bench? Why is there not enough room on your plan for all the desks in the
room? What could you do to fix it? (See Case Study 3, page 66.)

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Sample Learning Activities
Grades 3–5: ★★ Important Focus

Indirect Measure KU
Making Models
Give students materials to make models of familiar structures (towers, robots,
houses, bridges). Ask them to think about the relative size of parts of their
models. For example, prompt their thinking by asking: If the house is this big,
how big do you think the window should be? How big would the door be? Does
it look right? Why? Why not? What would you do to fix it?

Spiders

3
Ask students to imagine they are a spider on the ceiling of their classroom
looking down. Ask: What do you think the top of the desks would look like? What
about the bookcase and the cupboards? Do you think you could see the legs of
the desks? Have them draw a plan of the classroom as they think the spider
would see it. Ask: What looks right on your plan? Does anything look strange?
(My plan looks like the classroom but it is a bit funny because I have drawn the
teacher’s desk too big for the other furniture.)

Informal Scale Models

Have students make models to a specified but informal scale. For example, give
students a box and say: This is a table. Make a chair the right size for this
table. Ask: Why did you decide to make the legs that high? What other
measurements did you have to think about to make the chair the right size?

Scale Factors
Have students investigate simple scale factors on maps (e.g., 1 cm = 1 km). Ask:
What does this mean? How can I use this to work out how far it is from Melanie’s
house to the video store? Invite students to work out approximate lengths and
distances using simple scales.

Scale Models
Have students use uniform units (e.g., straws, craft sticks) to measure given
features of the environment (e.g., the width, length, and height of furniture or
playground equipment). Ask them to make models of the measured features,
using 1-cm or 2-cm (or Base Ten) cubes to represent one unit. Encourage
students to explain the scale they have used. Ask: How do you know that the
table should be three blocks tall? How many straws long was the playground
tunnel? So, how many blocks long will it be in your model?

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 Grades 3–5: ★★ Important Focus
More Classroom Planning
As a whole class, have students help measure the length and width of the
3

classroom and the fixed furniture around the room. Draw a one-tenth scale
Indirect Measure KU

plan (1 dm = 1 m) of the classroom, including only the fixed furniture, on a large

sheet of paper. Help students measure and make correctly scaled cardboard
cut outs of their desks and chairs, as well as other moveable furniture. Invite
them to position their cut outs of the classroom plan to show how the furniture
is currently arranged. Later, have students re-position the furniture on the
plan to help work out a new arrangement of furniture for the classroom. Ask:
Have you left enough space between your desks? How do you know? Will there
be enough room to walk between those chairs?

On the Computer
Have students investigate reducing and enlarging print on the computer in
order to predict and check scale changes. Ask them to type the same word a
number of times using the same font. Invite them to change each one to a
different point size, record the size of each one next to it, and print the sheet.
Have students hand their sheet to a partner and ask, How much bigger or smaller
have I made my word? Encourage students to predict whether it is, for example,
twice as big, three times as big, four times as big, half as big. Ask: How do you
know? What effect does the different point size have on the size of the print?
Is a 40-point word twice the height (width) of a 20-point word?

kitten 10 pt

kitten 20 pt

kitten 40 pt

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Sample Learning Activities
Grades 5–8: ★★ Important Focus

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Floor Plans
Have students examine the floor plans of houses and identify some rooms to work
out the scale used. Invite them to use the sizes indicated on the plan for each
room to measure out the actual dimensions on the playground. Ask: How many
square metres is the games room in real life? What are the measurements on the
plan? How can you work out what scale the architect has used to draw the
plan?

3
Distorted Simple Shapes
Ask students to examine two drawings made up of simple shapes, one supposedly
an enlargement of the other but with some distortions so that it does not look
right. Ask: Which parts of the enlargement look right? Which parts do you think
are distorted in some way? How can you tell? Invite them to use grid lines to
discover exactly what is wrong and then attempt to correct it. Ask: What do you
need to do to correct the roof? How have the windows changed?

Athletics Banner
Invite students to design a banner using a scale drawing. For example, say:
The Canadian Athletics Team needs a new banner to take to the World Athletics
Championships. The banner has to be 4 m by 2 m and include the words
“Canadian Athletics Team.” Make a scale drawing of it so the manufacturer
knows exactly how to make the full-sized banner. Ask: Why is it important to tell
the manufacturer the scale used to design the banner?

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 Grades 5–8: ★★ Important Focus
Dolls and Action Figures
Ask students to bring in dolls and action figures. Invite them to compare the
3

height of the doll to their own height and find how many times the doll’s height
Indirect Measure KU

would fit into their own. Have them use this scale factor to compare other
body measurements (e.g., waist, length of limbs). Ask: If your height is ten
times the height of the doll, what would you expect the doll’s waist measurement
would be? How can you check? What other measurements are different from
what you would expect? Why do you think dolls are not accurate scale models
of real people? What about toy animals? Are they also distorted models of real
animals? How? Why?

Micronians and Earthlings

Say: The inhabitants of the planet Micros look exactly the same as humans,
but their forearm bone is only 10 cm long. Ask: Can you use this information to
work out how tall they are? Ask students to draw a picture to scale that shows
an Earthling standing next to a Micronian. Ask: What other measurements do you
need to make to complete the drawing? How can you use the information you
have about the Micronian’s forearm to decide how long its legs are? Help
students see that by dividing the length of their own forearm by 10 cm (the
length of the Micronian’s forearm), they will arrive at a scale factor that tells
them how many times longer their legs (waist, chest, hands) are than the
Micronian’s.

Cereal Boxes
Have students compare the picture on the front of small and large cereal boxes.
Ask: What has remained the same? What has changed? Invite students to draw
a grid across the front of the smaller box and create a smaller version of the same
box. Ask: What scale factor have you used?

Scale Drawing of the School

Give students a scale drawing of the school and ask them to work out the scale
factor used. Invite them to measure different parts of the school and compare
their measurements to measurements taken directly from the drawing. Ask:
How have you compared the two measurements? How can your calculator help
you compare? Which operation did you use to work out the scale factor? How
can you check that you have the correct scale factor for the drawing?

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Display of Artwork
Have students use scale drawings to plan arrangements of objects. For example,
say: We need to help the librarian set up a display of winning artwork from
the artwork competition. Two of the winning pieces are 30 cm by 21 cm and the

Indirect Measure KU
other two are 60 cm by 42 cm. The bulletin board is 1.5 m by 2 m. Encourage
students to choose a simple scale (e.g., 1 mm = 1 cm) to draw the bulletin
board and make cut outs of the winning pieces to experiment with arrangements.
Then, invite students to choose a suitable arrangement and use the scale plan
to set up the full scale display in the library. Ask: What is the same and what
is different in the scale plan? What do you need to measure to be sure the
winning pieces are set up as planned?

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 CASE STUDY 3
Sample Learning Activity: K–Grade 3—Classroom Plan, page 60

Key Understanding 3: Scale drawings and models have the same shape as
the original object. This can be useful for comparing and calculating
dimensions and for making judgements about position.

Working Towards: Quantifying Phase

MOTIVATION AND PURPOSE

My Grade 3 students had talked about how they could rearrange the classroom
and I decided to use this to develop ideas about scale. I asked the students to
make a desktop model of how they would like the classroom to look.

ACTION
A few students chose wooden cubes to represent desks, but most decided that
Lego pieces were better. Several students chose a sheet of paper to use as
TM

the floor and some drew in furniture around the room before counting the
correct number of Lego desks. I showed the rest of the class what they had done
TM

and suggested that they could all draw a plan of their classroom layouts.
Students chose the size of paper they wanted to use and many started by using
the Lego pieces as templates to draw around so that all of the desks would be
TM

the same size. Others put the Lego pieces away before they began their plan
TM

and seemed to not consider the size of the pieces of furniture as they drew
them in. Quite a few students ran out of floor space before they had drawn in
all the desks, and decided they would have to start over with a larger piece
of paper. Re-drawing smaller desks was not the obvious solution for them.
Others had drawn very small desks and so ended up with lots of floor space in
their plans. None of the students used any form of measurement in drawing
up their plans.
I brought the students together and asked, “Is there enough space on your
plan for people to walk around the room between the desks? Everyone in the
I wanted the students room has to be able to get to the door easily.”
to think about the I asked students to use their plan and show their partners how people would
size of the various walk to the door. Many students realized they had not considered the space
pieces of furniture between the various pieces of furniture. Some realized that they had made
in relation to each some pieces bigger or smaller than they should have and made comments like,
other and to the size “But the teacher’s desk is not that big really, it is just a bit bigger than our
of the room. desks. All of your desks are kind of squashed up in the corner and there would
not be enough space for chairs. I could not fit through that gap, it is too
small.”

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DRAWING OUT THE MATHEMATICAL IDEA
After a while, I called them together again and said, “When we draw a plan, we It was time to draw
really need to try to have things about the right size.” out the importance of
trying to keep things
I drew a rectangle on the white board and asked, “If this is the size of one

Indirect Measure KU
to scale.
desk in our room, how big should the computer table be? Bigger than it or
smaller than it? How much bigger than it?”
I asked everyone to show me the size with their hands and then asked Tadao to
draw it. The class discussed whether this was about the right size and after a
small correction I asked, “If this is the size of one desk in our room, then how
big should my desk be?” Again, the students indicated with their hands, and one
student drew the picture.
“OK, now look at your plan. Is the computer table about the right size in
comparison to one desk that you have drawn?” I asked. At this point, many

3
of the students seemed concerned that their plan was not right so I offered
them the opportunity to try again. Several students did
not attempt the
conventional bird’s
eye view. They drew
the desks with the
legs showing and
included the wall
displays and chalk-
board, as well as
students sitting in
their chairs and the
Corey’s plan of
teacher walking
the classroom
around.

Katlin’s plan is typical

of the plans initially
produced by most
other students. They
used a conventional
bird’s eye view, but
Katlin’s plan of most did not attend
the classroom to the relative size of
furniture or space
between the desks.

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 3
5
8
0
2 Key Understanding 4

We can calculate one measurement from others using relation-

ships between quantities.

In the everyday world, many of the measurements we use have not been
obtained directly but have been derived from other measurements by
undertaking computations. This may involve the following.
Choosing and using an operation, such as:
• adding the quantities shown on each of the containers to decide how
much ice cream there is in the freezer
• weighing ourselves on the bathroom scales, weighing ourselves holding
the cat, and find the difference to find the weight of the cat
• measuring the thickness of a thousand sheets of paper and dividing the
measurement by one thousand to measure the thickness of a sheet of
paper
Choosing and using a rate or scale, such as:
• finding the volume of a container by finding the mass of the water it
holds, and using the fact that water weighs one gram per cubic centimetre
• estimating the time it will take to travel between two towns using the
anticipated speed (a rate) and the distance
• using a measurement on the map, and the scale factor of 1000 to estimate
a real distance
Choosing and using a formula, such as:
• finding the area of a rectangle by measuring the lengths of two adjacent
sides and multiplying the two measurements
• using a baby’s weight and a formula relating the amount of medicine
needed to body weight to work out the right dose of medicine
Students should learn to recognize when a computation will help solve a
practical measurement problem, work out which computations to do and
do them correctly.

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 Working out whether and when a computation is possible involves
thoughtfulness and judgement. For example, students may have learned
through activities such as those described in Key Understanding 1 that the
area of a rectangle can be found by multiplying its length by its width.

Indirect Measure KU
Confronted with the problem of finding the area of a garden, they then have
to decide whether they can use this rule or formula. Is the garden a rectangle?
Can we check? Is it close enough for my purposes? If not, can I break the garden
up into smaller rectangles that I can find the area of? and so on.
If the students decide that a particular formula may be used, they will
need to decide what component measurements are required and apply the
formula correctly. Applying the formula correctly is not simply a matter of
computational skill, it involves first checking that the units of measurement
are appropriate and doing any needed conversions.

4
Links to the Phases
Phase Students who are through this phase...
Quantifying ■ are able to choose operations in relatively straightforward
situations
For example: Students may add the lengths of the sides of a shape
to find its perimeter, or subtract a television program starting
time from its finishing time to work out if the three-hour
videotape is long enough.

Measuring ■ are able to carry out computations with measurements involving

decimals
■ use the relationship between quantities to work out one quantity
from another and will make some of their own measurement short
cuts
For example: Students might multiply the length of one side of a
regular polygon by five to get the perimeter or find the volume of
a prism composed of cubes by multiplying the number of layers by
the number in each layer.

Relating ■ are able to choose and use straightforward formulas with which
they are familiar, including working out what measurements they
need to make in order to use the formula and ensuring that the
units are consistent

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 Sample Learning Activities
K–Grade 3: ★ Introduction, Consolidation, or Extension
4
Indirect Measure KU

Incidental
Let students see and hear your computations when you combine measurements
for a purpose. For example, while planning the assembly, say: We will allow
about two minutes for the speech by Ms James and three minutes each for the
two songs, so that is eight minutes so far. Or, say: We are going to need two cups
of starch for each batch and there will be three batches, so we will need six cups
of starch.

Does It Work?
After students have used a common unit to measure the length of various
paper tapes, or ribbons, ask them to predict the total length if the ribbons
were to be arranged in a long line. Ask: What would we need to do to work
out the total length? Would your calculator be helpful? Have them check their
computations by laying out tapes (ribbons) end-to-end and measuring the
total. Repeat for other combinations of lengths.

Class Party
Invite students to solve problems that involve combining quantities. For
example, say: In preparing for the class party, Mrs. Williams poured one cup of
powdered drink mix into the jug and then added nine cups of water. Ask: How
much drink did she make? How do you know it is that much? What if she
wanted to make double that amount? How many cups of mix and how many cups
of water would she need? How did you work it out?

Cooking
In cooking activities, involve students in planning the quantities and writing
out new recipes (doubling the ingredients for a cake, making enough dough for
two cookies for each student, computing the amount of ingredients for home-
made lemonade from a recipe for four).

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Sample Learning Activities
Grades 3–5: ★★ Important Focus

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Excursions
Have students help plan excursions. For example, invite them to work
out when they will return to school. Ask: How long will we spend at the
destination? How long will it take to get there? How long will it take to get
home? How long will we spend having lunch or snacks? Help students see how
periods of time are combined and related to the starting times to enable them
to tell parents when they will return to school.

4
Borders
Have students work out the length of a border for the bulletin board. Encourage
them to decide on a suitable unit, count how many on each side and attach that
number to each side. Ask: What do you notice about the top and bottom and side
measurements? Invite them to work out the total length without
re-measuring. Ask: Can you see a short cut for measuring another bulletin
board?

Frame a Picture
Invite students to work out how much cardboard they need to frame their art.
Ask: What measurements will be needed? How will the corners go together?
Will this make a difference to the measurements? How can we work out how
much cardboard will be needed altogether? The cardboard comes in lengths of
1 m, 1.5 m, and 2 m. Which would be the best to use? Have students measure
and construct their frames.

Overcoming Limitations
Have students overcome limitations in the measurement range of equipment. For
example, give students kitchen scales that weigh up to 250 g. Ask them to
find the mass of a bag of flour (which weighs more than 250 g). Then, ask
them to find about 400 g of tomatoes to use in a sauce. Ask: What computations
did you need to do? How can you check your results a different way?

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 Grades 3–5: ★★ Important Focus
Broken Ruler
Ask students to measure and compute to overcome inaccuracies in equipment.
4

For example, give students parts of a broken ruler (they should have different
Indirect Measure KU

parts) or paper tape marked like a broken ruler. Ask them to find the length of
both shorter and longer items and say how they were able to measure in
centimetres. Ask: How can you work out the length without having to count each
centimetre gap? What calculations can you use? Which measurements involved
more calculations? Why? Does it matter which part of the ruler you have?
Should you get the same result?

Combined Mass
Ask students to find objects that have a combined mass of 1 kg (combined
length of 1 m). Ask: How did you do this? Did you need to use any
computations? How did you find out how much the last object had to weigh
(measure)? Was it difficult to find something that was just right?

Weighing Awkward Objects

Have students use bathroom scales to find the weight of objects that can be
difficult to weigh without special scales (e.g., small animals, bags of fruit or
vegetables, a packed suitcase) by weighing themselves, weighing themselves
together with the object, then computing the difference. Ask: Why does this
method work? How accurate is it likely to be? Could we weigh a very small
kitten using this method? Why? Why not?

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Sample Learning Activities
Grades 5–8: ★★★ Major Focus

Indirect Measure KU
Recycled Cans
Have students investigate the amount of refund the school receives for recycled
aluminum cans. Invite them to use this information to calculate the total mass
of the cans collected by their class so far, the total mass of cans collected in the
school, the amount of money the school will receive, and a prediction of how
much money the school will receive by the end of the year. Ask: How can you
work out the total mass when you cannot fit all of the cans on the scales?
What do you need to know to work out how much money the school should

4
receive?

Overcoming Limitations
Invite students to find a way to measure things that are too small for the
accuracy of the equipment available (the thickness of a single piece of paper
using only their ruler, the mass of a grain of rice using kitchen scales, the
volume of a drop of water using a measuring cylinder). Compare the methods and
the operations used for each measure. Ask: Which were the quickest and easiest
to carry out? Did the different methods produce different answers? Why did
this happen? How could the range be reduced?

It Needs Fixing
Ask students to compute to address inaccuracies in equipment. For example, say:
Our tape measure has stretched, so when I use it to measure an object that my
stretched tape shows is 1 m long, I know that the real length of the object is
1.2 cm longer than 1 m. Ask:
• What would the real length of the room be if my stretched tape measure
shows it as 4 m long?
• What would be the real length of a chair that my tape measure shows it as
50 cm?
• What would be the real length of my desk that my tape measure shows it as
1.5 m?
Have students share the computations they used to work out the real lengths.

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 Grades 5–8: ★★★ Major Focus
Dripping Tap
Have students measure the quantity of water wasted from a dripping tap in
4

one day. Ask: Is there any way we could work it out without leaving the bucket
Indirect Measure KU

under the tap all day? How could we use this information to work out how
much water would be wasted in a week? Invite students to work it out. Then,
ask: Which measurements did you need to make? What computations did you
need to do? How could you adjust the time measurement to make the
computations easier?

Oil Spills
Have students find the areas of a range of irregular regions (not given on grid
paper), such as the aerial view of oil spills. (See Oil Spills, page 32.) Limit the
materials students can use to paper tiles, ruler, pencil, and calculator. Invite
students to explain how they worked it out. Ask: How can you use the length-
by-width rule to avoid counting all the squares? (See Case Study 4, page 78.)

Using Perimeter
Extend Oil Spills above by having students test the incorrect hypothesis that you
can use the perimeter of a region to work out the area. For example, present the
following conflict situation. Say: Someone in the other class found a very quick
and easy method to work out the area of a diagram of an oil slick. They taped
string around the edge of the shape then cut and joined the ends of the string.
They then made the string into a rectangle, and multiplied the height and the
width measures of the rectangle to work out the area. Ask: Do you think this
method would give you a measure of the area? How do you know? How could
you test this? How would you convince the student from the other class?

Using a Formula
Have students decide when it would make sense to use a particular computation
or formula and when it would not. For example, present the following problems
and ask: Would it make sense to multiply 4 by 10 to get an answer? Why? Why
not?
• A man can run 1 km in 4 min. How long would it take him to run 10 km?
• A kilogram of apples costs $4. How much would it cost for 10 kg?
Present the following questions and ask: Could you sensibly use the length-
by-width rule to answer the following questions? Why? Why not?
• The school athletic field measures 70 m by 50 m. What is its area?
• A rectangular pasture measures 70 m long and 50 m wide. What is its area?
• A rectangular park is 70 m long and 50 m wide. How much fencing will be
needed to enclose it?

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Show students the following shapes and ask: Why would it not make sense to
multiply 7 times 8 to find the area of these shapes?

Indirect Measure KU
Grazing Areas
Say: There are two goats. The first goat is tethered by a rope to a stake in the

4
ground. The second goat is tethered by a rope half as long as the first goat’s rope
to a sliding rail that is double the length of the first goat’s rope. Invite students
to use a compass and ruler to draw representations of the two feed areas. Give
students cubes, paper tiles, or pencil and ruler to work it out and then ask:
How did you work out which animal has the larger grazing area? Encourage
students to discuss and justify the method they chose. Draw out the strategies
that were the quickest and easiest to use. Ask: How do you know these strategies
are as accurate as counting all the squares?

Goat 1 Goat 2

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 Grades 5–8: ★★★ Major Focus
Area Problems
Have students solve practical area problems involving regular and irregular
4

regions (how much fertilizer needs to be purchased for the school athletic
Indirect Measure KU

field, how much paint needs to be ordered to paint a large red circle on the
asphalt using two coats). Encourage them to draw on a range of strategies,
including partitioning into rectangles and other regions and adding areas,
using formula, and so on. Ask them to explain and justify their strategies to their
peers.

Postal Rates
Give students information about postal rates from Canada Post. Say: Franco
wants to send some small gifts to Italy. They have a total mass of 1.4 kg and
each weighs between 100 g and 150 g. Ask: What is the best way to send
them? Invite students to investigate and compare sending them together in one
parcel or separated into two or more parcels, by surface mail or airmail. Ask: How
would your choices be different if the gifts had to get to their destination as
soon as possible?

Missing Labels
Have students complete measurement problems by filling in the missing labels
or measurement units for each answer and then justifying their choice. For
example, ask: How do you know which unit is needed for these answers?
• What is the area of a 4 cm by 3 cm rectangle? 12 ___
• What is the volume of a 5 cm by 2 cm by 3 cm rectangular prism ? 30___
• How far will I travel if I drive at 95 km/h for 1ᎏ12ᎏ h? 142.5___
• The scale on the map is 1 cm = 5 km. If the distance between towns on the
map is about 3 ᎏ12ᎏ cm, what is the real distance between the towns?
17.5 ___

How Much Concrete

Have students solve area and volume problems in which different units are
used. For example, say: Compute how much concrete in cubic metres is needed
to make a path 50 cm wide, 20 m long, and 50 mm thick. Would 1 m3 of concrete
be enough or would you need 2m3 ? How did you decide? Encourage students to
use diagrams and visualization. For example, invite students to imagine how
many layers of path would reach a metre tall. Ask: How can you compare the
thickness in millimetres to a metre?

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Can You Do It?
Have students work in pairs or groups to decide the answer to questions like the
following:
• If the area of the square of carpet is 49 m2, can you work out the length of

Indirect Measure KU
the sides?
• If the volume of a cube is 8 cm3, can you work out its surface area?
• If the area of a rectangular swimming pool is 18 m2, can you work out
the lengths of the sides?
• If the volume of a rectangular prism is 24 cm 3, can you work out its
surface area?
• The area of the pasture is 800 m2. Can the farmer work out what fencing he
needs?

4
Ask: How did you decide which measurements you could work out? What com-
putations would you use? Why can you not work out the other measurements?

Did
Many students believe that you can work out the area of a shape from the
perimeter. This is true for squares and for circles, but it is not generally
true. It seems that students who have learned to think of area simply as
You?
Know
length times width will try to use it even when it does not help. For
example, asked to find the area of an oil spill, many students in Grades 5
to 7 placed a piece of string around the edge of the spill and then formed
the string into a square or rectangle so they could use a formula to work
out the area.

Students need many experiences that help them distinguish between the
attributes of perimeter and area and realize that one figure can have a
bigger perimeter than another but a smaller area and vice versa. For
example, have students:

■ produce different figures all with the same perimeter and then put
them in order by area
■ produce different figures all with the same area and then put them in
order by perimeter
■ arrange various figures in order first by area and then by perimeter
and compare the orders

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 CASE STUDY 4
Sample Learning Activity: Grades 5–8—Oil Spills, page 74

Key Understanding 4: We can calculate one measurement from others

using relationships between quantities.

Working Towards: Measuring Phase and Relating Phase

TEACHER’S PURPOSE
I was considering the pointers to achievement for Measuring phase and Relating
phase that suggested that students should be able to dissect irregular shapes
into rectangles in order to find the area. My Grade 6 students had measured
things like leaves and puddles earlier in the year (developing their understanding
of direct measure), but of late had mostly been using the length-by-width
formula for rectangles. I wondered if they really understood what they were
doing and why, and thought returning to irregular shapes might help them
clarify when and how the formula could be used.

PURPOSE AND MOTIVATION

A recent oil tanker accident resulting in a large oil spill had provoked an
animated class discussion, so I decided to use that context as a basis for the
area activity. I gave the students a diagram of a large, irregularly curved, closed
shape that could not easily be approximated by a rectangle. I told them the
following scenario: “Here is an aerial view of an oil slick. The company needs
a fairly accurate estimate of how much surface it covers to work out costs of
treatment. What is the area of the oil slick?”

CONNECTION AND CHALLENGE

I provided Base Ten squares, but not square graph paper. I wanted to provoke
the students to use a strategy other than counting squares. Many students
started placing the squares on their shape, but quickly realized this was going
to be too much of a chore, so they started drawing grid lines on their sheet. A
few students started groaning about there being too many squares to count. At
that point, I asked, “Can you find a shorter way to work it out rather than
counting all the squares?”

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 ACTION
Many students still chose to count the squares. Some students, however, seemed
to be excited by the challenge of finding a shortcut.
About eight students around the room used the idea of drawing rectangles

Indirect Measure KU
inside the shape. Some students, like Megan, drew a large and a small rectangle
over the grid she had drawn and then multiplied the length and width to work
out the squares in the rectangle. She then counted the whole and part squares
outside the rectangles.

4
Megan’s work sample

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 Other students, like Jessie, had drawn rectangles inside the shape first, then
I knew it was common constructed the square grid outside the rectangles. They calculated the rectangle
for students to think areas, added them and then counted the leftover squares.
that if shapes have
4

the same perimeter

Indirect Measure KU

they also have the

same area, and to
apply area formula to
any shapes. I made a
note of these
misconceptions to be
dealt with in the
follow-up lesson.

Jessie’s work sample

Lori asked if she could use string. She carefully placed it around the edge of the
shape, then formed the same length of string into a rectangle and used length
by width to work out the area. Several others followed suit. John made his
shape into a square and found the area of the square using the formula he
knew.
Two students had come up with a formula for irregular shapes like the oil spill.
Their formula was perimeter times pi. They wanted to know if this was correct.
At that stage I brought the class together. I began by asking students to call
out their estimates and I quickly wrote them on the board. There was a fairly
big range. I asked the students how they could explain this, and whether the
range was acceptable. Some were happy with the range, but a few thought
that some of the suggestions were “way off.” After some discussion, I drew
out from the students that some of the strategies we used might not have
given as good an estimate as others.

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This gave me the opportunity to focus on the strategies they had used. I
started with the rectangle idea and suggested to the class that the other
shortcut ideas would require another lesson to investigate.
I asked Megan to explain why she drew a rectangle on her grid. Megan showed

Indirect Measure KU
the class her diagram.
“If I drew the rectangle I could multiply the number of squares in each row by
the number of rows using the calculator. Then I found another rectangle
underneath and I did the same thing. Then all I had to do was just count the
leftover whole squares, and count up the parts of the squares around the edge.
It was easy.”
I added, “So, you found that looking for an array in your grid made it quick and
easy to work out how many square centimetres in your shape. Who else looked
for arrays?”

4
Students who used a similar method to Megan’s showed their drawings. I
focused their explanations on how they used the arrays. I asked Jessie to
explain how he worked his out because he had also used rectangles but his
method was different from Megan’s.
“Well, I couldn’t be bothered drawing in all the squares. I knew that if my
rectangle was 14 cm across and 12 cm down that is the same as saying 12
rows of 14 which is 168 square centimetres. I did the same thing with the
other rectangles.”
Two others shared the way they worked out the area of the rectangle within their
shape and how they dealt with the leftover squares.

DRAWING OUT THE MATHEMATICAL IDEA

I asked, “So what do you have to do to be able to use these shortcut methods?”
“You have to look for rectangles on your grid and then see how many rows
and how many columns you have, then you can multiply,” said Sharn.
Leia added, “You do not have to count all the squares in the shape and get
mixed up if you do it like that.”
“You could draw a big rectangle over the whole shape and then take away the
squares that are not in the shape,” said Nathan.
Some students thought that was a good idea and said that they would try that
next time.
“It is just easier if you know the area of a rectangle is length times width,” said
James.

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 I knew that they would need to do many more of these types of activities so that
students who were still counting each square could come to believe in the
more efficient way of working out area over time.
I closed the lesson by saying there were two important jobs to be done over the
next few days. The first job was to test the string shortcut method and the
perimeter times pi method to see if they worked.
The second job was to examine the range of answers to see if the students
could decide which answers they would accept as being in the correct range and
to talk about how accurate they were and needed to be. In doing this, they
would need to think about the scale of the drawing and what they would
actually be able to tell the oil company.

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Chapter 3
Estimate
Make sensible direct and indirect estimates of quantities
and be alert to the reasonableness of measurements and

73
results.

Overall Description
Students have a good feel for the size of units, make sensible estimates in

8
commonly used standard units, and have the disposition and skills to judge
the reasonableness of estimates and measurements. They know that to
estimate which of two rocks has the bigger volume, looking may be sufficient,
but to compare their masses, lifting the rocks will probably be necessary.
They have a range of benchmarks that they use in estimation; for example,
they may know which of their fingers is about a centimetre wide, what a
litre container of milk looks like, and how heavy a kilogram of butter feels.
They also use these benchmarks to judge the reasonableness of measurements
and estimates, saying, for example, that the average height of students in
their class cannot be 2.3 m—they must have made a mistake. Students also
reason from familiar or known quantities to estimate quantities that cannot
be found directly or conveniently; for example, yearly water wastage from the
school’s leaky taps or how many apples are eaten in their province or territory
each day.

2
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83
 Indirect Measure:
Key Understandings Overview
Teachers will need to plan learning experiences that include and develop
the following Key Understandings (KU). These Key Understandings underpin
achievement of this family of concepts. The learning experiences should
connect to students’ current knowledge and understandings rather than to
their grade level.

Key Understanding Description

KU1 We can make judgements about order and size without actually measuring. page 86
We should think about how confident we can be of our estimate.

KU2 We can improve our estimates by getting to know the size of page 94
common units and by practising judging the size of objects
and events.

KU3 We can use information we know to make and improve page 108
estimates. This also helps us to judge whether measurements
and results are reasonable.

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Grade Levels— Sample Learning
Degree of Emphasis Activities Key
K-3 3-5 5-8

★★ ★★ ★★ K-Grade 3, page 88 ★★★ Major Focus

Grades 3-5, page 90 The development of this Key
Grades 5-8, page 92 Understanding is a major focus of
planned activities.

★★ Important Focus
★★ ★★ ★★ ★ K-Grade 3, page 96
The development of this Key
Grades 3-5, page 99
Understanding is an important focus of
Grades 5-8, page 102
planned activities.

★ Introduction, Consolidation or
K-Grade 3, page 110 Extension
★ ★★ ★★★
Grades 3-5, page 111 Some activities may be planned to
Grades 5-8, page 113 introduce this Key Understanding, to
consolidate it, or to extend its
application. The idea may also arise
incidentally in conversations and
routines that occur in the classroom.

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02 3
Key Understanding 1

85 We can make judgements about order and size without actually

measuring. We should think about how confident we can be of
our estimate.

Being able to make judgements about order and size without measuring is
helpful when actual measurement is difficult or we can tolerate reasonable
variations in quantity. We use our perceptual judgement to estimate size,
by looking at or feeling things, or experiencing the passage of time. Though
a person very familiar with a particular type of material might be able to
look at something made from that material and estimate its mass or weight,
it would not normally be sufficient simply to look in order to estimate mass;
we would need to lift it. A student who tries to estimate the mass of a rock
simply by looking at it may well be confusing mass with volume or with
some other attribute.
Students should be encouraged to make statements about the confidence
they hold in their estimates. A student might estimate a wall to be 7 m wide
but claim to be absolutely certain that the wall is between 4 and 10 m wide
and pretty sure it is between 6 and 8 m. As students discuss their work, the
language of approximation should be clarified (e.g., almost, not quite, a bit
less than). They should learn that the suitability of an estimate depends on
how confident they would be to use it in particular circumstances. Thus,
the suitability or correctness of an estimate depends upon whether it is
sensible for the use to which it is to be put and not how close it is to the
real measurement.
The focus of this Key Understanding is the development of the following
understandings:
• It is possible to estimate a quantity by making a perceptual judgement
(that is, by looking or feeling or experiencing).
• We may rely on perceptual judgements of quantity when making a direct
physical measurement is difficult or impossible (perhaps we have lost
our tape measure or the spot is awkward to get to).
• We may also rely on perceptual judgements of quantity when we are
confident that our judgement is good enough for the circumstances.
• To be confident in our judgements, we need to focus on the right attribute
and not be distracted by other perceptual features.
• We need to be able to say how confident we are of a particular estimate
so we can decide whether it is good enough in the circumstances.

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 Key Understanding 2 deals with the development of students’ skill in
making perceptual estimates and Key Understanding 3 with their ability to
improve and check estimates by supplementing perceptual judgements with
known information.

Links to the Phases

Estimate KU
Phase Students who are through this phase...
Emergent ■ are prepared to make judgements of size in order to deal with
familiar everyday matters
For example: When asked to collect a sheet of paper from the front
of the room to cover the top of their desks, students will try to

1
make a reasonable judgement of size.

Matching and ■ attend to the right attribute to make judgements in familiar

Comparing situations, distinguishing
length from area and mass from volume, although they may not
consistently use this language
For example: Students will pick up the two objects when asked
which is heavier or how many of one will balance the other.

Quantifying ■ do not let an overall sense of size (volume) distract them when
estimating mass, and neither will they be distracted into thinking
that the event that finished last or started first) necessarily took
longer
■ understand the use of the language of between to describe
estimates, and prompted, will comment informally on their
confidence in their estimates

Measuring ■ will say whether they have enough confidence in their estimate to
rely on it in particular circumstances, although they may not think
to take it into account unless prompted

Relating ■ will say whether they have enough confidence in their estimate to
rely on it in particular circumstances, without prompting

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 Sample Learning Activities
K–Grade 3: ★★ Important Focus
1

Blanket for a Bear

Estimate KU

Have students choose an area large enough for a purpose just by looking. For
example, ask students to select a sheet of paper about the right size for a
blanket to cover their bear (a wall space to display their work, a pasture for their
collection of farm animals). Ask: Can you choose without taking your bear
(your work, your collection of farm animals) with you? Draw out the idea that
they can often tell by looking.

Sitting Around a Hoop

Ask students to estimate how many of them could sit around a hoop. Invite them
to check to see if they are close and then encourage them to modify their
estimates. Repeat this with larger circles and other shapes. Focus on how
confident they are in their estimates; (I am certain 10 could fit, and maybe
even 15, but 20 would be too many.) Ask: What did you look at to help you judge
how many? Which part of the hoop did you look at? What did you think about
when you were looking at the hoop?

Packing Away
While packing away equipment, ask students to estimate volume and capacity.
For example, say: Choose a box that all the blocks or balls will fit into. Ask: Are
you sure the long blocks will fit in that box? What about the smaller box? Why
do you think the long blocks will not fit? Which boxes do you think will
definitely not be big enough? What made you decide?

Odd Lids
Have students sort through a box of odd lids to find lids for particular containers.
Encourage them to state their choices before testing them. Ask: What sorts of
things tell you it should be the right lid? Do you think it will be too big or small?
Do we need to try all of the lids on each container? Draw out the idea that
looking backwards and forwards from the lid to the container can help us judge
if it will be a close fit.

Balancing on the Teeter-Totter

Have students estimate everyday objects by mass. For example, ask: Who could
balance you on the teeter-totter? What is the heaviest thing you could carry in
that dump truck without it tipping over? What could balance with that apple
on the balance scales? Encourage students to explain their decisions. Ask: How
could you decide which is heavier? Why is it hard to know which is heavier
just by looking?

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Being Late
Include students’ judgements about time in oral stories. For example, say:
Jason told the others, We will all be late if we go to the other side of the athletic
field because the bell will ring before we get back. Ask: How can you tell when
the bell will ring?

Estimate KU
Farthest Throw
Have pairs of students estimate how far apart they should stand to play a game
involving kicking or throwing a ball to each other. Encourage them to base
their estimate on a previous day’s experience of throwing or kicking a ball.
Ask: How did you decide how far apart to stand ? How can thinking about how
far you kicked the ball yesterday help? How could pretending to throw a ball help

1
you to think how far away your partner should be?

Choose a Rope
Have students estimate a length of rope to tie between two posts as a barrier
for sports day. Lay out the ropes alongside each other far enough away from the
posts to make direct comparison difficult. Say: It is too much effort to try all
of these ropes, so pick out two lengths that you think are long enough to tie
between the posts. Encourage students to first look at the gap then choose
two ropes. After students have checked to see if their ropes fit, ask: What did
you look at to help you choose a rope that was long enough? How did you
know that rope would be too short?

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 Sample Learning Activities
Grades 3–5: ★★ Important Focus
1

How Many People?

Estimate KU

Invite students to estimate the room available for classroom activities. For
example, ask: How many students will fit in the reading corner (the computer
room)? How much room does one person need? How do you know that your
estimate is close enough without moving people? Move the furniture to change
the size of the space and ask again.

Display Board
Ask students to decide whether they need to measure or estimate in order to
work out how many pieces of paper will fit on the display board. Ask: What
will you look at to help you imagine how many fit across the board in one
row? How many rows do you think will fit down the board? How sure are
you that that many pieces of paper will fit? What would you need to do to
measure how many do fit? Which would be easier—to measure or to estimate?

Estimate or Measure?
Have students consider different hypothetical situations where a judgement
about mass is required and decide whether estimating or measuring would be
appropriate. For example, say: It is winter and grapes are very expensive. Would
you lift the grapes to estimate how much you wanted to buy, or would you
want to check the mass on some scales before you bought them? Why? Why not?

Marking Out Games

Have students estimate to mark out games. For example, say: Let us mark out
a hopscotch game. Ask: How will you judge the size for each shape? How long
should it be altogether? How wide? Do you need to measure, or can you tell by
just looking? Will it make a difference to the game? When setting up for
baseball(tee ball), ask: How do you know this ball diamond is a reasonable
size? When would we need to measure exactly?

Time Before Recess

Invite students to judge if there is enough time left before recess (lunch) to play
a game. Ask: How do you know how long it will take? How do you know how
much time we have left? How can you estimate the amount of time left? How
can you estimate the amount of time it will take to play the game? (past
experience)

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Different Amounts of Drink Mix
Ask: How do you decide how much powdered drink mix to use when mixing a
drink? Why not measure out the amount? What happens if you use too much (not
enough) mix? What makes you feel sure you will have the right taste? Have
different students make up some mixtures of drink mix and water and compare
the taste. Ask: Why is the taste different in the different glasses? What did

Estimate KU
you look at when you were pouring in the drink? How did you know when to stop
pouring? How could you make sure your glasses all had the same taste?

Covering a Container
Ask students to estimate and choose the size of paper needed to cover the
outside surface of a container to make a pencil holder. Invite them to test

1
their estimate and, if necessary, choose another size. Ask: Why do you think you
underestimated (overestimated) the size? Did you use the length (width) of
the paper, or the area? Why? If you were using gold leaf paper, would an
estimate be good enough? Why? Why not?

Will it Fit?
Have students decide whether they can rely on an estimate to say if things
are big enough (about the right size, not too big) for practical purposes
(selecting a piece of wrapping paper to cover a present, cutting string to tie
around a box, choosing a box to fit all the books in). Ask: Which part of the
object are you looking at in order to make your decision?

Distorted Estimates
Discuss factors that distort estimates (time passes slowly when you are waiting
for someone, objects look smaller and closer together when they are farther
away, a tall narrow glass looks like it would hold more than a short wide glass),
including visual illusions. Both line segments below are the same length, but
the bottom one appears to be longer because of the direction of the arrows at
each end; the person at the back of the room looks taller because the room has
been drawn to perspective while the people have not. Both people are actually
the same height.

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 Sample Learning Activities
Grades 5–8: ★★ Important Focus
1

Track and Field

Estimate KU

Have students decide how accurate measurements need to be for different

purposes. For example, ask students to think about setting up the school
athletic field for the track and field day. They would need to decide:
• what size each waiting area should be for each sports team
• how much tape they will need to mark out the waiting areas and the running
lanes
• the position of the markers for team games
Ask: Where might estimation rather than exact measurement be sufficient?
What unit of measure would be accurate enough for each job? When do you need
exact measures?

Bottles of Drink Mix

Ask students to decide how prepared they would be to rely on their estimates.
For example, invite them to estimate how many litres of drink mix are needed
for every student to have a glass. Ask: If most estimates were about 1ᎏ21ᎏ mL, how
confident would you feel about buying one 2-L bottle? What would you buy if
the estimates were between 1ᎏ34ᎏ mL and 2ᎏ13ᎏ mL? Would it be better to over-
estimate or under-estimate in this situation? Why? Is an estimate enough to
decide or would an accurate measure be better?

Reasonable Estimates
Encourage students to use past experience to judge the reasonableness of each
other’s estimates. For example, say: Some students said they could walk around
the athletic field in one minute. Do you think they could? What would be a more
reasonable length of time? How do you know?

Parent Panel
Have students invite parents to form a panel to answer students’ questions
about when they estimate and measure at work; for example, a builder might
describe how and why the amount of mortar needed to lay bricks for a section
of wall is estimated and why the placement of the first brick course is carefully
measured to millimetre accuracy. Ask: Why is estimating chosen over measuring
in some of the situations? In what kinds of situations is measuring important?

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Elevator Problem
Have students decide whether we might over-estimate or under-estimate in
realistic situations. For example, say: The mass limit given on an elevator is
905 kg. How many trips would it take to carry our class up to the ninth floor?
Should we use our closest estimate, an over-estimate, or an under-estimate
of students’ weight?

Estimate KU
Getting to the Bus Stop
Have students decide when an under-estimate or over-estimate of time intervals
is needed (getting to the bus stop, playing outside, baking times for cookies,
travelling time to school). Ask: If I needed to get to the bus stop to catch
the 10 a.m. bus, how much should I underestimate or overestimate the time it

1
would take me to get there? Should I under-estimate or over-estimate the time
I spend outside (the time it will take the cookies to bake)? By how much?

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02 3
Key Understanding 2

85 We can improve our estimates by getting to know the size of

common units and by practising judging the size of objects
and events.

This Key Understanding deals with the improvement of students’ skill in

estimating quantities by making a perceptual judgement. We look at a man
and say he is taller than Dad; we look at a jug and say it is big enough to
hold two cups of sauce. We lift a rock and say it weighs a bit more than a
kilogram, and we experience the passage of time and judge that at least
10 min have passed. Students should understand that even though estimation
relies on perception, it is not just guessing. Estimation involves judgement
that has improved with the help of experience; that is, with practice.
Practice helps us to become both better at estimating quantities and
more confident in our judgement, so that we are prepared to trust it. Helpful
practice involves:
• making an estimate
• getting feedback on how close the estimate was (often by measuring
immediately)
• consciously using the feedback to improve the next estimate, and
repeating the cycle
To estimate several things and then check all of them is less likely to
improve our estimation skills. Sometimes, students misunderstand the request
to estimate then measure and develop the mistaken view that we would
normally do both. They may then think that measuring is better than
estimating, and even that an estimate is wrong if it is not the same as the
measurement.
Students should be clear that in school the reason we often measure
after estimating is to get better at estimating. In real life, they will be expected
to do both. We estimate instead of directly measuring. If we have faith that
our estimation skills are sufficiently good for the situation, then we will not
measure.

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Links to the Phases
Phase Students who are through this phase...
Emergent ■ will look to find something clearly longer than an object and lift
to find something clearly heavier than an object

Estimate KU
Matching and ■ will generally be able to find lengths, masses, or volumes of
Comparing objects that are about, less than, and more than one provided
■ will make reasonable length estimates up to about five or six
units if they can see and handle a representation of the unit,
such as a rod or a walking step

Quantifying ■ are able to find areas and times (to the hour, half hour, and five

2
minutes) that are about, less than, and more than ones provided
■ make reasonable estimates of length, mass, area, volume, or angle
up to about six units, if they can see and handle a unit such as
metre, litre, and kilogram

Measuring ■ use the known size of common objects (e.g., a litre carton of milk)
as benchmarks to assist them with their estimates
■ use the known size of common standard units, such as centimetre,
metre, litre, and kilogram, to find objects about that size without
the unit actually present

Relating ■ have a well-developed sense of the size of common standard units

and can find lengths of about 1 mm, 1 cm, 1 m; volumes of about
1 L, 250 mL (a cup), 25 mL (a tablespoon); masses of about 1 kg,
100 g; and areas of about 1cm2 and 1 m2

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 Sample Learning Activities
K–Grade 3: ★★ Important Focus
2

Animal Homes
Estimate KU

Have students find spaces large enough for one student to use as a home in
imaginative play. For example, provide boxes when students are pretending to
be animals. Encourage students to try the space. Ask: Is it as big (small) as you
thought? Invite some students to pretend to be animal families and look for
homes that will fit two, three, or four students. Ask: How did you judge that box
would be big enough for all three of you? What did you look at to make your
decision? Use the same boxes repeatedly over a few days. Ask: which box fits
two (four) people? How do you know?

Benchmark
Have students stand in a circle. Ask one student to step forward and ask the
others to find a student who is shorter (taller). After several attempts, sit the
class down, stand one student up and repeat the activity. Encourage students
to visualize the heights of others. Try out each suggestion as it is given and let
the student have another attempt to see if they can improve their estimate. Ask:
What are you thinking about when you are trying to judge height? What
difference does it make when you all sit down? Extend this to objects in the
room by asking students to estimate which objects are taller than a selected
object.

My Metre
Invite students to find how far up their body a metre is. For example, say: A
metre is up to my stomach. Where do you think a metre would come to on
you? Ask them to practise imagining a metre high as well as a metre wide.

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Ask: Is your bike seat more than 1 m from the ground? Is your desk wider than
a metre? Is the width of the doorway more or less than a metre?

Estimate KU
2
Just a Minute
Ask: When someone says, “Just a minute,” how long do they mean? What
activities do you think would take you about a minute? (putting on socks,
getting a drink) Invite students to try out their suggestions as they make
them, telling them when to begin, then stopping them after a minute’s duration.
Encourage the class to use this information to suggest activities that are closer
to a minute.

Fingers and Thumbs

Give students pieces of cardboard exactly 1 cm wide and ask them to find parts
of their fingers and thumbs that are the same width as 1 cm. Ask them to
estimate centimetre-sized lengths in the room and check with their benchmark.
Ask: What will happen to the size of your centimetre part when you get older?

Minute Timer
Have students stand or sit with their backs to a one-minute egg timer. Say: I
am going to say “Start!” when I start this one-minute timer and I want you to
put your hands on your head when you think a minute is up. Set the timer
and say: Start! Ring a bell to show when 1 minute is up. Ask: How close were
you? Can you get closer? What did you think about to help you decide when the
minute was up? Repeat to help students improve their estimates.

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 K–Grade 3: ★★ Important Focus
A Metre
Have students use a 1-m length of cardboard or string to find different things
in the classroom that are close to 1 m (the door knob, the length of the desk).
Have each student choose one of these to use as a benchmark for a metre
2

length and estimate whether other lengths around the room are more than,
Estimate KU

the same as, or less than a metre. Encourage them to check each time so that
they can improve their estimates. Ask: What did you think about when you
compared the length of your benchmark to the doorway? Why do you think
you overestimated (underestimated) the length of a metre on your last try?

Furniture Through the Door

Ask students to decide which furniture will fit through the door so the room can
be repainted. Encourage them to categorize the furniture into those pieces
that will easily fit through, and those that will be close. Ask: What makes you
sure that these will fit through easily? What makes you sure the other ones
will not? Which pieces of furniture would you need to measure before you
move them? Why?

Vegetables and Fruit

Have students estimate a kilogram of various vegetables and fruits by comparing
to a known kilogram benchmark. For example, select a common grocery item that
has a mass of a kilogram (a litre of water, a kilogram can of fruit, a kilogram
of yogurt) and put it in a bag to use as a kilogram benchmark. Place various
quantities of fruit or vegetables in plastic bags and invite students to lift them
to find those that match the mass of the benchmark bag. Encourage them to use
a balance scale to check each time and thus improve their estimates. Ask: Why
do you think different people made different judgements about which bags
had a mass of 1 kg? Can you make up a bag yourself that you think contains a
kilogram of potatoes? How does having the known kilogram bag help you?
SAMPLE LEARNING ACTIVITIES>>

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Sample Learning Activities
Grades 3–5: ★★ Important Focus

Thumb and Forefinger

Estimate KU
Have students practise holding their thumb and forefinger 1 cm (2 cm, 5 cm)
apart and have their partners check with pieces of cardboard cut exactly to
each measurement. When they are able to do this with confidence, suggest
they challenge family members to match their skill. Encourage students to use
this visual memory to estimate the length of small items (an eraser, a pencil
sharpener).

2
How Long Is a Metre?
Have students estimate metre lengths and distances and, with feedback, develop
personal benchmarks for the unit. For example, first have students tear off a
length of tape that they judge to be 1 m long and then compare the tape to a
metre tape measure. Invite students to try again, adjusting their next estimate
according to their first result. Encourage them to use their outstretched arms
in some way to help judge the metre length. Second, draw two chalk lines
exactly 1 m apart and have students step out the distance in various ways.
Third, have students use a metre rule to find a part of their body that is one
metre above the ground. Ask them to estimate other heights of 1 m and check
with their personal benchmark. Ask: How does checking your estimate help
you get better at estimating a metre? How did working out a personal benchmark
help improve your estimates? Why might you need to measure and check your
personal benchmarks in six months or a year? (See Case Study 1, page 105.)

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 Grades 3–5: ★★ Important Focus
A Litre
Ask students to estimate a litre of water in a bucket, then pour it into a milk
carton to check. Encourage them to try again, making adjustments, until the
estimate is close to a litre. Then, invite students to estimate a litre of water in
2

a large bowl, testing again with the litre carton. Ask: Why do you think your final
Estimate KU

bucket estimate was closer than the first bowl estimate? What were you looking
at when you first estimated the litre of water in the bucket? How did you
improve your estimate the second or third time? What did you think about
when you were estimating the litre in the bowl? How could you estimate a
litre of water pouring from the tap?

Cans of Food
Have students lift to compare cans of various foods in different sizes with a
known kilogram weight or object. Ask them to estimate the number of each type
of can that would approximately equal a kilogram. Invite students to use balance
scales to check results and try to improve at each attempt. Record and compare
successive estimates. Ask: How did lifting the kilogram of jam help you to
estimate how many cans of baked beans would weigh 1 kg? What did you think
about to improve your estimate after you had checked the balance scales?

Food at Home
Have students find things at home that are packaged in 1-kg amounts (e.g.,
1 kg of rice, 1 kg of potatoes, 1 kg of sugar). Ask them to write about the size
and feel of each package. Ask: How did the kilogram of potatoes feel different
from the kilogram of rice? How would a kilogram of potato chips feel the same
or different from a kilogram of sugar? Later, bring in a range of similar packaged
things that vary in weight between 250 g and 2 kg and cover the weight
information with stickers. Have students examine the packages and then lift
them to identify which have a mass of about (less than, more than) a kilogram.
Ask: How did looking at the food help you decide which? How did lifting help
you choose the packages that were about a kilogram?

A Square Metre
Have students join newspaper sheets to estimate and construct a metre square.
Invite them to test their estimate by measuring the length of each side and then
adding or removing paper until they have a square with sides of exactly 1 m.
Then, ask students to estimate which things in their environment would have
an area of about a square metre by visualizing a match with their newspaper
square. Ask: How can you judge if its area is a square metre if it is not a square?
(imagine cutting up the newspaper square and rearranging it to fit the shape).
What are you thinking of (looking at) to say that the long, narrow window is
about 1 m2? Can you imagine a circle that has an area of 1 m2? Would it have
to be wider or narrower than your newspaper square? Why?

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A Square Centimetre
Have students visualize how many square-centimetre tiles will cover the floor
plan of a room. Encourage them to look at a 1-cm square tile next to the plan
and think of ways to judge how many would be needed. Invite them to compare
methods, then estimate again using a different floor plan. Ask: Did your strategy
change after your first try? How? Were you more confident in your estimate

Estimate KU
the second time? Why? Why not?

Egg Timer Estimates

Have students make an egg timer with two plastic bottles and help them to
adjust it to measure exactly 5 minutes. Organize students into pairs and ask them
to take turns estimating 5-minute intervals while their partner checks using the

2
timer. Ask: How close was your estimate? Can you get closer with practice?
Does what you are doing during the 5 minutes affect how accurate your
estimates are?

Make a hole. Fill one bottle Tape the bottles

with sand. together and turn
them over.
Fill one bottle with sand.

Standard Volumes
Give students 1-L drink bottles or milk cartons to use as a benchmark to help
them estimate the volume of liquids. Have students pour water into and out of
the litre container to help them visualize the amount of liquid in a litre. Invite
students to decide whether other amounts of liquid are less than, close to, or
more than a litre (a glass of milk, the amount of water needed to water an
indoor plant). Ask: What helped you judge that the glass of milk must be less
than a litre?SAMPLE LEARNING ACTIVITIES>>
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 Sample Learning Activities
Grades 5–8: ★★★ Major Focus
2

Class Charts
Estimate KU

Have students make class charts naming familiar objects that are approximately
1 g, 1 kg, 1 cm, 1 m, 1 mm, 1 L. During classroom activities, encourage students
to use the charts to help them estimate other things. For example, say: If you
know that bag of rice weighs a kilogram, how heavy do you think that bag of
potatoes is?

Length of Pace
Have students develop their own reliable personal benchmarks in order to
improve the accuracy of their estimates. For example, ask students to find the
average length of their normal walking pace, then the length of different types
of paces (striding, jogging, running). Ask: Which types of paces could you use
to estimate metres? How reliable would your estimates be using the different
paces? Encourage students to choose a pace type to use as their benchmark, and
use it to estimate a 10-m distance, a 25-m distance, and a 50-m distance.
Have their partner check with a trundle wheel to give feedback on the usefulness
of the method.

Box for a Toy

Have students visualize and estimate the size of familiar objects they cannot
actually see to measure. For example, say: Think of a small toy or object you have
at home and estimate its dimensions to construct a box for it. Suppose all the
boxes will be placed in a large container to be sent overseas. Save as much
space as you can. When students have made their boxes, ask them to bring
in the objects from home and test them in their boxes. Ask: How well did
your container match the size of your object? Why do you think you over-
estimated (underestimated)? How could you improve your judgement in
the future?

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Bags of Mass
Have students improve their estimation of mass units. For example, provide
plastic bags marked with a range of masses such as 100 g, 250 g, 500 g,
800 g, and 1000 g. Invite students to choose from substances such as rice,
beans, sand, or play dough and place what they estimate to be the appropriate
mass in a selected bag. Encourage them to check the mass on a kitchen scale

Estimate KU
and to repeat with the same substance until they get close to the target mass.
Invite them to try another mass. Ask: How did you judge 250 g of rice? How was
this different from 250 g of play dough? How would you estimate 250 g of
rice?

Feedback on Distance

2
Have students consider the value of different types of feedback for improving
estimates. For example, ask students to pace out either 7 m, 9 m, 11 m, or
13 m, then have their partner measure with a trundle wheel and use one of the
following four types of feedback:
• right, wrong
• way out, a bit out, close
• much (a little) too long, much (a little) too short
• the actual distance in metres
Have students repeat the estimate, measure, and feedback cycle five times,
then choose a different distance and feedback type and repeat the process,
with their partners keeping a record of the actual distance paced out each
time. Invite students to decide on the type of feedback that best helps improve
successive estimates. Ask: Which types of feedback were the most (least)
helpful for improving your estimates? Why?

More Feedback
Extend Feedback on Distance above to other attributes, such as mass, capacity,
time, and angle, to have students find which kind of feedback best helps
improve their estimates.

Sorting Shapes and Surfaces

Extend A Square Metre, page 100, by having students sort a range of shapes or
surfaces according to their estimate of whether they are less than, more than
or about equal to one square metre. Include a range of sizes of circles, triangles,
rectangles, and other irregular shapes cut out from newsprint or drawn in chalk
on the playground. Ask: How did you judge that the triangle was larger than a
square metre? How did you imagine cutting and rearranging the narrow rectangle
to match a square metre? Is there a different way you can think about visualizing
that amount of area?

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 Grades 5–8: ★★★ Major Focus
Length Benchmarks
Have students use a ruler to measure various parts of their hand and
forearm to find a reliable personal benchmark for a millimetre, a centimetre, and
a decimetre. Invite students to challenge partners to use a straight edge to
2

draw lines with lengths between 1 mm and 30 cm as accurately as possible

Estimate KU

using only their benchmarks to help them. Ask: Which combination of

benchmarks did you use to draw your line 12.5 cm long? How did you judge the
half centimetre? Can you find a more reliable benchmark?

Milk Cartons and Mass

Have students fill a milk carton with water and weigh it to determine that a litre
of water has a mass of 1 kg. Ask them to use that information and a medicine
glass to find amounts of water that have a mass of various small numbers of
grams. Then, invite them to pour the amounts of water into small lightweight
plastic sandwich bags and lift to gain a sense of the mass of small quantities
of water. Encourage them to use lifting to estimate the mass of small objects
(pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, seeds, small pebbles, table tennis balls).
Ask: What is the smallest number of grams that you can reliably estimate? Can
you tell the difference between 5 g and 10 g? Why do you think it is so difficult
to estimate the mass of very small objects by lifting, compared to estimating
mass in kilograms?

Milk Cartons and Volume

Help students establish that 1 L is the same volume as 1000 cm3 or 1 dm3.
Invite students to estimate the volume of various objects by imagining a milk
carton and comparing its dimensions to the size of the object. For example, I
think the volume of the softball would be close to a cubic decimetre, because I
can imagine it fitting into the bottom half of a 2-L milk carton. Ask: How could
you estimate smaller volumes by thinking about smaller milk or juice cartons?

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CASE STUDY 1
Sample Learning Activity: Grades 3–5—How Long is a Metre?, page 99

Key Understanding 2: We can improve our estimates by getting to know

the size of common units and by practising judging the size of objects.

Working Towards: Matching and Comparing Phase and Quantifying Phase

TEACHER’S PURPOSE
My Grade 3 students had often used a trundle wheel to measure outdoor
distances in metres and a metre rule to measure the width of things in
the classroom. When I asked my students to estimate the distance to the water
fountain in metres, however, they all simply counted the steps they took. So I
decided to set up some activities to help them develop personal benchmarks for
a metre.

ACTION AND REFLECTION

I gave the students rolls of paper tape and asked them to tear off a strip that
they estimated to be a metre long, and write their name clearly on it. The
students pinned the strips to a display board, lining up one end. I asked the
students to write down whose tape they thought would be closest to a metre
and then pinned a metre tape measure above the strips and drew a line down
from the metre point across the tapes.

The students looked at and commented on their estimates.

“Oh, mine was much too little.”
“Mine is about 2 m long.”
“Look, mine is just about the same as Lian’s and only a little bit less than
a metre.”

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 OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN
I then asked the students to have another try at tearing off a metre of tape. Each
new strip was pinned on top of the old strip and the class compared the new
estimates to the metre. Most students had overcompensated in their second
attempt—if their first estimate was shorter than a metre, their second was
much longer than a metre, and vice versa.
2
Estimate KU

Several students wanted to try a third time and I asked what they thought
they might do to make it a better estimate.
“The first one I just kept unwinding until I though it must be a metre, but it
turned out really, really long. The next one I looked at the tape and thought if
it looked like the one on the wall, but it ended up too short. This time I am just
going to try and look at it and think it is a bit longer than the wall one,” said
Choon.
Maria said, “I just guessed the first ones, but this time I am going to put out
my arms and think about it.”

CONNECTION AND CHALLENGE

After Maria’s comment, I told the students how I estimate a metre of fabric
or ribbon. I hold one end with the fingertips of one hand and, with my other
hand, stretch the ribbon to the tip of my nose with my head turned away.
The students were very interested to watch me tear off a strip of tape using my
method, and they were most impressed to see the tape was so close to a metre
when tested.
The students were then anxious to try again for themselves, and this time
I was pleased to see that most made some sort of physical estimate, and
I was able to encourage them to keep trying until they found a way to
match a metre.

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When students became confident that they had a personal benchmark for
estimating a metre, I asked them to go outside and each draw two chalk marks
on the playground that they thought were 1 m apart.
I was surprised to find that in this different context most students were unable
to use the method they had previously developed and simply took a step, or
reverted to guessing. When they paired up to test each other’s estimate with

Estimate KU
a trundle wheel, they were perplexed to see how different their metres were.
Several of the students who had taken one step and measured that, were
surprised that a metre was so much longer. Sam even accused his partner of
turning the wheel twice—he had difficulty believing that the circumference
was so much longer than the diameter of the trundle wheel.

2
I realized that estimating distance was more complicated because they needed
to think about some imaginary straight line running between the two chalk
marks, then mentally measure this.
I then asked students to find one of the metre paper tapes they had previously
estimated with some accuracy and compare this to the distance they had
marked out, and to the trundle wheel.

DRAWING OUT THE MATHEMATICAL IDEA

This provided an opportunity to talk about the different things the students had
to think about when estimating a metre in situations where there was no line
or edge to guide them.
To help them develop a way to pace out a metre length, I drew two lines across
the hall exactly 1 m apart, close to our door. Students enjoyed using this guide
to find their own way to reliably judge a distance of 1 m.
After several days, I again asked students to estimate a metre distance in the
playground and found most had developed some way to approximate this very
well.

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02 3
Key Understanding 3

85 We can use information we know to make and improve

estimates. This also helps us to judge whether measurements
and results are reasonable.

This Key Understanding deals with the development of students’ ability to

supplement their perceptual judgements with known information in order to
make or improve estimates and judge the reasonableness of estimates and
measurements made by others.
There are a variety of ways in which known information might be built
into an estimate.
• Students could make a direct perceptual comparison with something
they know the size of; for example, they could estimate the mass of an
object by holding it in one hand and holding one or more 50-g chocolates
in the other.
• Students could use something they know the size of as a measuring
instrument by marking off; for example, they could mark off hand spans
across a table, and use their knowledge of the length of the hand span and
a computation to estimate the table width in centimetres.
• Students could use ratios or fractions to estimate the size of small things;
for example, they could weigh a ream of paper and use it to estimate the
mass of one sheet of paper.
• Students could pool a combination of known information and good
guesses to estimate quantities without collecting actual data; for example,
they could work collaboratively to estimate the quantity of water used in
their school each day or the number of kilometres they walk each week.
• Students could average a number of estimates to get an improved estimate;
for example, they could average class members’ estimates of the same
span of time.
• Students could use common events to estimate amount of time and time
of day; for example, they could use how busy the parking lot is to estimate
how long it is to the end of the school day.
Students should also learn to call upon sizes they already know or to
reason on the basis of familiar or known quantities to judge the reasonableness
of a result; for example, could the bread really weigh 3.4 kg, or the average
height of women in Canada really be 217 cm?

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Links to the Phases
Phase Students who are through this phase...
Quantifying ■ can identify body parts of about 1 cm, 10 cm, and 1 m, and use
these directly to make estimates of length

Estimate KU
■ build given information into their judgements
For example: When told that the door is 2 m high, students will
say that the ceiling is about half as much again, so it is about
2 m high. Students will say that since the lunch break is 3 min
and the concert fit well within the lunch break, the concert
cannot have lasted more than 30 min.

Measuring ■ recall the size of some body parts and movements (hand span,

3
finger width, arm length, walking step) and use these and simple
computations to make estimates (My step is about 90 cm and the
garden is 24 steps long so…)
■ collaborate with others to develop strategies for making sensible
estimates of quantities, such as how much water is lost from
dripping taps each week at school

Relating ■ have a repertoire of reference points, such as the size of a sheet

of paper, and, unprompted, build these reference points into their
estimates and their judgements about the reasonableness of
measurements

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 Sample Learning Activities
K–Grade 3: ★ Introduction, Consolidation, or Extension
3

Using Known Measurements

Estimate KU

Encourage students to use known lengths (volumes, masses) of objects to

estimate other lengths (volumes, masses). For example, invite them to use
something that just fits in their bag as a guide to decide if something else
will fit without having to get the bag. Ask: You know that big thick book will
only just fit into your bag, so do you think your diorama will fit without
squashing it? How did you decide? Or, ask them to establish how many craft
sticks fit along their desk, then look at the length of the bookshelf and decide
if it is more or fewer craft sticks wide. Ask: How many craft sticks long
do you think the bookcase might be? How did you decide?

My Metre
Extend My Metre, page 96, by having students use their knowledge of a metre
in relation to their body length to judge heights. For example, ask them to
use their knowledge of where a metre comes to on their body to decide if
heights in the playground are more than a metre or less than a metre. Ask:
How can you tell that the monkey bars are more than a metre from the ground?
Do you think that the coat hook is higher than a metre from the floor? How can
you tell?

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Sample Learning Activities
Grades 3–5: ★★ Important Focus

Estimate KU
Wanted
After measurement activities that establish the heights of students in the class,
present a “wanted” poster with a description that includes the height of a
wanted person. Have students identify possible wanted persons from other
classes by estimating their heights based on their own height and the known
heights of others in the class. For example, The wanted person is 20 cm taller than

3
me. I know that Katie is 10 cm taller than me and Ian from next door looks
about 10 cm taller than Katie, so Ian could be the one.

Estimating with Heights

Have students use what they know about their height to estimate other lengths
(e.g., the height of the door, the height of the window, the length of the
room). Ask: How did you decide that the door is twice your height? Can you
visualize how many people of your height would fit lying head-to-toe along
the wall?

Smallest to Largest Capacity

Have students compare a variety of cups with a standard measuring cup
(250 mL), estimating to line them up from the smallest to largest capacity.
Ask them to measure to find how many millilitres each one holds and order
them again. Invite students to look at other liquid containers and say whether
they hold more or less than 250 mL or about how many millilitres they hold.
Discuss strategies for making the comparison. Ask: How does the shape of the
container affect your estimate? How can visualizing changes in shape help
you to compare the container to the measuring cup?

Orange Juice for Lunch

Extend Smallest to Largest Capacity above to estimating quantities of liquid
for real purposes. For example, ask: How much orange juice would we need for
a class lunch? Would 10 L be a sensible estimate? How could you decide from
what you know about the capacity of a cup and 1 L?

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 Grades 3–5: ★★ Important Focus
Fish Sizes
Have students use parts of their body as benchmarks for practical estimation.
For example, display a local fisheries chart showing minimum sizes of fish that
you are allowed to keep. Ask students to work out personal benchmarks for
3

the minimum sizes of a range of local fish (trout, perch, bass, salmon). Give
Estimate KU

groups of students different-sized cardboard cut outs of the fish so that they
can use their benchmarks to judge which they can keep and which must be
thrown back. Appoint one member of each group to be a wildlife inspector
and check with a ruler if any under-size fish have been kept. Have students refine
their benchmarks and try again to improve their estimates.

The Length of the Track

Have students use measurements they know to judge the reasonableness of
estimates. For example, say: Someone told me the length of the track was
200 m, but I am not sure. Ask: How close do you think this estimate might be?
How do you know? Encourage students to identify a known 10-m length from
which to judge the claim. For example, I know I can throw the beanbag about
10 m, and it takes about five throws to cross the athletic field. Or, I can see
that the track is not much more than twice its width, so 200 m is too much. I
think it is only about 100 m.

Capacities
Have students make use of capacity measures of smaller quantities to estimate
large amounts. For example, ask: How much water do you think we will need to
refill the fish tank? Think about the capacity of other containers that you
already know about, like 2-L ice cream containers or 2-L orange juice containers.
How could that help you estimate? (See Case Study 2, page 116.)

Time Schedule
Have students use estimation to work out a time schedule for an excursion.
By comparison to known or measured time intervals (how long it takes to eat
lunch, get a drink of water, get to swimming lessons by bus), determine how
long is needed for the bus trip, how long for lunch, how long to see the display
(do the activity), and so on. For example, ask: If it takes about 15 minutes
in the bus to get to the pool for swimming lessons and the museum is twice as
far away, how long should we allow for the bus trip? Say: It takes about 15
minutes to eat lunch at school and about 15 minutes to get a drink. Ask: How
long do we need to allow to get out of the bus and find a place to sit? So,
how long do we need for lunch altogether?

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Sample Learning Activities
Grades 5–8: ★★★ Major Focus

Estimate KU
Marking Off Lengths
Have students use the idea of marking off to estimate a short length from a
known long length. For example, say: This bolt is 20 cm long. Estimate the
length of this shorter bolt. How does knowing that the short bolt fits along the
long bolt about four times help you estimate the length of the short bolt?

Water Used in the School

3
Have students combine measuring and estimation to solve complex problems.
For example, ask them to estimate how much water the school uses in a day.
Encourage students to think about what to measure and what to estimate.
Stimulate thinking with questions like: How many students are there in the
school? How often do they have a drink of water? How can we decide how
much one student drinks? How much is it likely to vary? What other ways is water
used in the school? Encourage students to consider other sources of information
that could help them (e.g., the water company, the cleaners, the gardener,
the canteen manager).

A Kilometre
Have students develop personal benchmarks for a kilometre by using a local map
to identify a familiar landmark that is a kilometre away from their homes. Ask
them to estimate the distance from the school to various destinations based on
what they know is a 1-km distance from their home. Then ask them to plan a
5-km jogging circuit around the neighbourhood, using estimation to judge the
appropriate distance.

Carpeting the Classroom

Have students use their known height to estimate area. For example, say: The
carpet shop has a special on 12 m2 of carpet. Is this enough for our room?
Invite students to say how long and wide the room is using body lengths and
use what they know about their height to say if this is enough carpet. Ask:
Whose body length could be used as a measure? Did visualizing how many
times your body length fits the length and width of the room help you estimate
how many square metres the room is? How? Can you draw a diagram to show how
it helped?

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 Grades 5–8: ★★★ Major Focus
Volume of the Classroom
Ask students to estimate in a variety of situations where they do not have
access to the measuring unit. For example, invite them to use the image of a
metre cube to estimate the volume of the classroom. Ask: Can you use your
3

hands to help you visualize the width and height of a metre cube? Can you
Estimate KU

imagine how many you would stack to reach the ceiling and how many would
fit side-by-side along the wall? How would that help us estimate how many
would fill the room? Construct the skeleton of a 1-m cube using rolled
newspaper. Ask students to imagine how many cubes would cover the floor
and how many would stack to reach the ceiling. Compare this result to their
initial estimations. Ask: What have you learned that you can use when you
estimate the volume of the storeroom?

Cubes and Litres

Extend Volume of the Classroom above by having students estimate the amount
of water in a swimming pool. Help students use the connection between litres
and cubic decimetres to establish that 1000 L is equal in volume to a cubic
metre. Encourage students to look at their 1-m cube and use the kind of
thinking that helped them estimate the volume of the room to estimate the
number of litres of water in the pool. Ask: How would imagining how many
cubes would stack together to fill the pool help you estimate the volume of
water in the pool?

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Eye Level
Encourage students to use known lengths of body parts to help estimate lengths.
For example, invite them to measure their eye level from the floor and use
this information together with the image of their ruler to estimate the heights
of other people and things. (My eye level is 126 cm and when I am looking
straight ahead at you I see the tip of your nose. I think from there to the top of

Estimate KU
your head is about two thirds of my ruler; that is 20 cm, so I think you would be
close to 146 cm tall.) Invite students to test their estimates against actual
measurements.

Marking Off Cupfuls

Invite students to mark off cupfuls of liquid in order to select the container that

3
will hold the most from several different-shaped containers. Encourage them to
put one cup of water in each container and place a mark at that level. Then,
have them use the one-cup level to estimate how many more cups would fit in
each container by visualizing each extra cup level. Use this information to
express the capacity of each container as a range (e.g., between six and seven
cups). Ask: How does the shape of the container affect your estimates? What
happens to the height of each level when the container gets wider?

Capacities
Extend Marking Off Cupfuls above to estimating the capacities of larger containers
(e.g., fish tanks, water cooler bottles). For example, pour a 10-L bucketful of
water into a fish tank and ask students to visualize the levels of water that
additional bucketfuls would reach. Ask: How can we use the level of the first
bucketful to estimate the total? Why not just put in 1 L of water and judge from
that? (See Case Study 2, page 116.)

Inaccessible Lengths
Extend the marking off idea to estimate a long inaccessible length from a short
length (height of trees, height of tall buildings, length of a ship). For example,
give students a photograph of a person standing next to a building and invite
them to visualize and mark off the “person heights” on the side of the building.
Use the known height of the person or the approximate height of people to
estimate the height of the building.

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 CASE STUDY 2
Sample Learning Activity: Grades 5–8—Capacities, pages 112 and 115

Key Understanding 3: We can use information we know to make and

improve estimates. This helps us to judge whether measurements and
results are reasonable.

Working Towards: Quantiying Phase and Measuring Phase

TEACHER’S PURPOSE
The fish tank in my Grade 6 class needed to be cleaned. To decide how much
conditioner to add to the water, the class needed to know the approximate
capacity. I decided to use this to help students think about how they could use
the known capacity of other containers to estimate unknown quantities.

MOTIVATION AND PURPOSE

I asked everyone to try estimating the quantity of water needed and record
this in their math journal. Their estimates varied from 50 to 200 mL and from
1 to 5 L, which suggested that most students had little sense of the size of the
Though students can units and were simply guessing.
become very good at
recognizing particular OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN
sized millilitre and I was certain all students had experience of 1-L carton of milk, a 2-L bottle of
litre containers in pop, and smaller fruit juice cartons measured in millilitres, and I knew some
common use, they do students could quite accurately name the capacity of many of these common
not consciously make containers. But they seemed not to have considered comparing the size of
comparisons between these known containers to the fish tank. For example, Katie said, “It would
them, nor do they hold a lot. I bet a hundred mils [sic].”
often have strategies
for using known I asked them to bring a range of liquid containers from home and the class
volumes to judge the sorted them from the smallest to the largest capacity.
capacity of less
familiar containers. ACTION AND REFLECTION
They need help to The students noticed that some different-shaped containers held the same
make such amounts. “The small ice-cream container and the milk carton are both one
connections. litre. I thought that the milk carton was bigger, but they are the same,”
remarked Dion.

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The students then used the litre containers to find the capacity of other
containers. During these activities, they discovered that the plastic buckets
held 10 L. They also stacked 10 milk cartons next to a bucket to see that it did
look to be about the same amount, even though it was a different shape.

Estimate KU
3
I asked the students to go back to their estimates of the fish tank to see if they
still thought their estimate was reasonable. All rejected their first estimate
and were very keen to make another, more informed one.
With very little prompting, most students used what they had learned about the
capacity of a bucket to make more sensible estimates.
This is an example from Katie’s math journal:

I first of all said that the fish tank would hold 100 mL because I thought a
hundred was a lot. But 100 mL is not even a little chocolate milk carton. I think
it would hold about 20 L because you can see it is bigger than a bucket and
a bucket is 10 L.

Aaron wrote:

It had to be more than 5 L because that is just half a bucket and the fish
tank is much bigger than that. I think you would have to tip in about 5 buck-
ets of water to fill it so I think it would hold about 50 L of water.

CONNECTION AND CHALLENGE

I then asked the students what they could do to be more confident about their
estimates without filling the fish tank and measuring exactly how much water
they used.
Biko suggested: “Why do you not just pour one bucket in? We could
see how high that goes up and look and think how many more buckets
would go in.”
Rebecca remembered the pile of milk cartons they compared with the bucket and
said: “We could get some empty milk cartons and stack them to work out how
many would be about the same size as the fish tank.”

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 The class worked on Biko’s suggestion and, after
the first bucketful went in, Biko used his fingers
to mark the levels he visualized for each bucketful.
I asked if anyone thought they could make a closer
estimate than between 30 and 40 L. Jeremy
suggested that it was between 30 and 35 L because,
3

“It does not look like any more than half a bucket
Estimate KU

more would go in.”

Kira added, “But it does not look like it could be much less than half a bucket
either, so it is more likely 35 than 30 L.”
The class then moved on to Rebecca’s suggestion. Although she had originally
intended that they actually build a pile of milk cartons in the shape of a fish
tank, the class now realized they would not have enough cartons in the
classroom for this, and they did not really need to do all that work. Instead, I
helped students visualize that eight cartons on their side would cover the base
of the tank and then four layers would bring this nearly to the height of the
tank, arriving at an estimate of 32 L. Students were delighted that the two
estimates were so similar, and could see that the difference could be accounted
for by the fact that four layers of milk cartons would be a little short of the full
depth. Because we would not be filling the fish tank right to the top, the class
decided to use the lower estimate to calculate the quantity of conditioner
needed.

DRAWING OUT THE MATHEMATICAL IDEA

I thought that students were now beginning to understand that making
reasonable estimates was not about making lucky guesses, but often requires
them to use some careful reflection and a procedure to compare the quantity
to be estimated to an appropriate benchmark. I asked them to take a few
minutes to write in their journals what they need to know and do to make
good estimates. Their responses suggested they had grasped the main idea,
for example:

You cannot just guess, you have to have something that you know about in your
brain and think about how that fit in with what you want to estimate. You think
out how many fit in and then you multiply it.

You might want to think how much water and in your mind you look at how
many milk cartons would fit in, or how many buckets because you know how
much is a milk carton or a bucket, and then you can figure it out.

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Appendix

73 Line Masters
Planning Master
120
141

8
Diagnostic Map Masters 142

2
6

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Name: Date:

Line Master 1 Rectangular Arrays

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Name: Date:

Line Master 2 1-cm Tiles

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Name: Date:

Line Master 3 Incomplete Grids

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Name: Date:

Line Master 4 Perimeter or Area?

HOMEWORK Peter
Question 1

6 cm

4 cm

Answer 20 cm
Question 2

4 cm

4 cm

Answer 16

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Name: Date:
Line Master 5 Triangle in a Rectangle

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Name: Date:

Line Master 6 Five Triangles

Cut and rotate to fit.

Will this always work?

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Name: Date:

Line Master 7 Rearranging Parallograms

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Name: Date:

Line Master 8 Visualizing Arrays

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Line Master 9 Figures on a Grid

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Name: Date:

Line Master 10 Changing Shape

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Line Master 11 Hexagons and Trapezoids

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Line Master 12 Broken Rulers

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Line Master 13 Using a Formula

8 cm
7 cm

8 cm

7 cm
7 cm

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Line Master 14 Distorted Estimates

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Name: Date:

Line Master 15 Volume of the Classroom

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Line Master 16 1-cm Grid Paper

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Line Master 17 2-mm Grid Paper

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Name: Date:

Line Master 18 1000 Grids

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Line Master 19 Ten-Squared Grid Paper

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Name: Date:

Line Master 20 10 x 10 Array

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Line Master 21 1-mm Grid Paper

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 Planning Master
Classroom Plan for Week , Term Grade Level:

Curricular Goal/ Mathematical Activities Focus Observations/

Key Understanding Focus Questions Anecdotes

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Date:

141
Diagnostic Map: Measurement
Emergent Phase
During the Emergent Phase
Students initially attend to overall appearance of size, recognizing one thing as perceptually bigger
than another and using comparative language in a fairly undifferentiated and absolute way
(big/small) rather than to describe comparative size (bigger/smaller). Over time, they note that their
communities distinguish between different forms of bigness (or size) and make relative judgements
of size.

As a result, they begin to understand and use the everyday language of attributes and
comparison used within their home and school environment, differentiating between attributes
that are obviously perceptually different.

By the end of the Emergent phase, students typically:

■ distinguish tallness, heaviness, fatness, and how much things hold
■ start to distinguish different forms of length and to use common contextual length distinctions;
e.g., distinguish wide from tall
■ use different bipolar pairs to describe things; e.g., thin–fat, heavy–light, tall–short
■ describe two or three obvious measurement attributes of the same thing; e.g., tall, thin, and heavy
■ describe something as having more or less of an attribute than something else, e.g., as being
taller than or as being fatter than
These students recognize that numbers may be used to signify quantity.

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Diagnostic Map: Measurement
Matching and Comparing Phase
Most students will enter the Matching and Comparing phase between 5 and 7 years of age.

As students move from the Emergent phase to the Matching

and Comparing phase, they:
■ may not “conserve” measures; e.g., thinking that moving a rod changes its length, pouring
changes “how much,” cutting up paper makes more surface
■ may visually compare the size of two things, but make no effort to match; e.g., saying which stick
is longer without lining up the bases or which sheet of paper is bigger without superimposing
■ compare time spans but may not take into account different starting times; e.g., deciding that
the TV program that finished latest was on longest
■ use bipolar pairs but may have difficulty with some comparative terms; e.g., lift to decide
which is heavier but say both are heavy because both hands go down
■ may distinguish two attributes (such as tallness and mass) but not understand that the two
attributes may lead to different orders of size for a collection, expecting the order for tallness
and the order for mass to be the same
■ while describing different attributes of the same thing (tall, thin, and heavy) may be confused
by a request to compare two things by different attributes, particularly if the comparisons lead
to different orders
■ often do not think to use counting to say how big or how much bigger; e.g., they may “weigh”
something by putting it into one side of a balance and smaller objects into the other side but
not count the objects
During the Matching and Comparing Phase
Students match in a conscious way in order to decide which is bigger by familiar, readily perceived,
and distinguished attributes such as length, mass, capacity, and time. They also repeat copies of
objects, amounts, and actions to decide how many fit (balance or match) a provided object or
event.
As a result, they learn to directly compare things to decide which is longer, fatter, heavier, holds
more, or took longer. They also learn what people expect them to do in response to questions
such as “How long (tall, wide or heavy, much time, much does it hold)?” or when explicitly
asked to measure something.

By the end of the Matching and Comparing phase, students typically:

■ attempt to focus on a particular attribute to compare two things; e.g., how much the jar holds
■ know that several things may be in different orders when compared by different attributes
■ line up the base of two sticks when comparing their lengths and fit regions on top of each
other to compare area
■ use the everyday notion of “how many fit” and count how many repeats of an object fit into or
match another; e.g., How many pens fit along the table? How many potato prints cover the
sheet? How many blocks fit in the box?
■ count units and call it “measuring;” e.g., I measured and found the jar holds a bit more than 7
scoops.
■ refer informally to part-units when measuring uni-dimensional quantities; e.g., Our room is 6 and
a bit metres long.

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Diagnostic Map: Measurement
Quantifying Phase
Most students will enter the Quantifying phase between 7 and 9 years of age.

As students move from the Matching and Comparing phase to the

Quantifying phase, they:
■ while knowing that ordering objects by different attributes may lead to different orders, may still
be influenced by the more dominant perceptual features; e.g., they may still think the tallest
container holds the most
■ may count “units” in order to compare two things but be fairly casual in their repetition of
units, not noticing gaps or overlaps; e.g., placing the first “unit” away from the end when
measuring length, not worrying about spills when measuring how much a container holds, not
stopping their claps immediately the music stops
■ do not necessarily expect the same “answer” each time when deciding how many fit
■ may not think to use unit information to answer questions such as: Which cup holds more? Will
the table slide through the door?
■ may not see the significance of using a common unit to compare two things and, when using
different units, let the resulting number override their perceptual judgement
■ while many will have learned to use the centimetre marks on a conventional rule to “measure”
lengths, they often do not see the connection between the process and the repetition of units

During the Quantifying Phase

Students connect the two ideas of directly comparing the size of things and of deciding “how many
fit” and so come to an understanding that the count of actual or imagined repetitions of units
gives an indication of size and enables two things to be compared without directly matching them.
As a result, they trust information about repetitions of units as an indicator of size and are
prepared to use this in making comparisons of objects.

By the end of the Quantifying phase, students typically:

■ attempt to ensure uniformity of representations of the unit; e.g., check that the cup is always full,
the pencil does not change length, the balls are the same size
■ use the representations of their unit carefully to make as close a match as possible, avoiding gaps
and overlaps; e.g., choose a flexible tape to measure the perimeter of a curved shape
■ know why they need to choose the same size objects to use as units when comparing two
quantities
■ see repeating one representation of the unit over and over as equivalent to filling or matching
with multiple copies of it
■ connect the repetition of a “unit” with the numbers on a whole-number calibrated scale
■ make things to a specified length in uniform units (including centimetres and metres)
■ use provided measurements to make a decision about comparative size; e.g., use the fact that a
friend’s frog weighs 7 marbles to decide whether their own frog is heavier or lighter
■ count units as a strategy to solve comparison problems such as: Whose frog is heavier? Put the
jars in order from the one that holds the most to the one that holds the least.
■ are prepared to say which is longer (heavier) based on information about the number of units
matching each object
■ think of different things having the same “size;” e.g., use grid paper to draw different shapes with
the same perimeter
■ add measurements that they can readily think of in terms of repetitions of units; e.g., find the
perimeter of a shape by measuring the sides and adding

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
Diagnostic Map: Measurement
Measuring Phase
Most students will enter the Relating phase between 11 and 13 years of age.

As students move from the Quantifying phase to the Measuring

phase, they:
■ while trying to make as close a match as possible to the thing to be measured, may find the
desire to match closely overriding the need for consistency of unit; e.g., they may resort to
“filling” a region with a variety of different objects in order to cover it as closely as possible
■ may not understand that the significance of having no gaps and overlaps is that the “true”
measurement is independent of the placement of the units
■ may still think of the unit as an object and of measuring as “fitting” in the social sense of the word
(How many people fit in the elevator? How many beans in the jar?) and so have difficulty with
the idea of combining part-units as is often needed in order to find the area of a region
■ maNy confuse the unit (a quantity) with the instrument (or object) used to represent it; e.g., they
may think a square metre has to be a square with sides of 1 metre, may count cubes for area
and not think of the face of each as the unit
■ may interpret whole numbered marks on a calibrated scale as units but may not interpret the
meaning of unlabelled graduations

During the Measuring Phase

Students come to understand the unit as an amount (rather than an object or a mark on a scale) and
to see the process of matching a unit with an object as equivalent to subdividing the object into
bits of the same size as the unit and counting the bits.
As a result, they see that part-units can be combined to form whole units and they understand
and trust the measurement as a property or description of the object being measured that
does not change as a result of the choice or placement of units.

By the end of the Measuring phase, students typically:

■ expect the same number of copies of the representation of their unit to match the object being
measured regardless of how they arrange or place the copies
■ understand that the smaller the unit the greater the number; e.g., are able to say which is the
longer of a 1-km walk and a 1400-m walk.
■ compose “part-units” into wholes, understanding, for example, that a narrow garden bed may
have an area of 5 or 6 m2 even though no whole “metre squares” fit into the bed
■ can themselves partition a rectangle into appropriate squares and use the array structure to work
out how many squares are in the rectangle
■ interpret the unnumbered graduations on a familiar whole-number scale
■ understand the relationship between “part-units” and the common metric prefixes; e.g., know that
a unit can be broken into one hundred parts and each part will be a centi-unit
■ work with provided measurement information alone; e.g., order measurements of capacity provided
in different standard units, make things which meet measurement specifications

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.
Diagnostic Map: Measurement
Relating Phase
Most students will enter the Measuring phase between 9 and 11 years of age.

As students move from the Measuring phase to the Relating

phase, they:
■ while partitioning a rectangle into appropriate squares and using the array structure to find its area,
may not connect this with multiplying the lengths of the sides of a rectangle to find its area
■ while understanding the inverse relationship between the unit and the number of units needed,
may still be distracted by the numbers in measurements and ignore the units; e.g., say that 350
g is more than 2 kg
■ while converting between known standard units, may treat related metric measures just as they
would any other unit, not seeing the significance of the decimal structure built into all metric
measures

During the Relating Phase

Students come to trust measurement information even when it is about things they cannot see or
handle and to understand measurement relationships, both those between attributes and those
between units.
As a result, they work with measurement information itself and can use measurements to
compare things, including those they have not directly experienced, and to indirectly measure
things.

By the end of the Relating phase, students typically:

■ understand that known relationships between attributes can be used to find measurements that
cannot be found directly; e.g., understand that we can use length measurements to work out
area
■ know that for figures of the same shape (that is, similar) the greater the length measures the greater
the area measures, but this is not so if the figures are different shapes
■ understand why the area of a rectangle and the volume of a rectangular prism can be found by
multiplying its length dimensions and can use this for fractional side lengths
■ think of the part-units themselves as units; e.g., a particular unit can be divided into one hundred
parts and each part is then a centi-unit
■ subdivide units to make measurements more accurate
■ choose units that are sufficiently small (that is, accurate) to make the needed comparisons
■ use their understanding of the multiplicative structure built into the metric system to move
flexibly between related standard units; e.g., they interpret the 0.2 kg mark on a scale as 200 g
■ notice and reject unrealistic estimates and measurements, including of things they have not
actually seen or experienced
■ use relationships between measurements to find measures indirectly; e.g., knowing that 1 mL =
1 cm3 they can find the volume of an irregular solid in cubic centimetres by finding how many
millilitres of water it displaces using a capacity cylinder

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FSIM011 | First Steps in Mathematics: Measurement Book 2
© Western Australian Minister for Education 2013. Published by Pearson Canada Inc.