In Year 1 recently we have been learning how to measure mass.
The children had a lot of fun getting the balance scales out and exploring classroom objects. They practised using the language of heavier and lighter, making sure to say a sentence to their partner after each pair of objects they weighed such as ‘The book is heavier than the glue stick.’
They were then set a variety of challenges such as ‘find an object which is heavier than a pencil but lighter than a dictionary’ which caused much rushing around to and from their balance scales checking their chosen objects!
Later in the week the children had the chance to use the balance scales again, but this time it was to weigh classroom objects using different non-standard units of measure. The children weighed a series of objects first with cubes, “The glue stick weighed 8 cubes” then with another unit of measure such as a pencil, “The glue sticked weighed 8 cubes but 15 pencils”.
We had some interesting discussions about which was the best non-standard measure to use and why. The children decided that the cubes were the best non-standard unit to use when weighing because they were all the same size and weight so it was fairest and I have to say the teachers agreed.
Well done Year 1 keep up the great maths work!
