Going to all lengths...

Going to all lengths...

This week in Willow maths set, we have been focusing on converting length- km, m, cm and mm. At first, we hold our hands up, we had a few struggles. However, it was soon revealed that what we were lacking was a conceptual understanding of length. Sure, we knew that kilometres were longer than metres, millimetres were the smallest unit of measure and that there were 100 centimetres in 1 metre, but we were unable to visualise exactly how long each measurement was.

Subsequently, we decided to take our learning outside: experimenting and estimating, justifying and explaining and making connections to converting different units of length. To begin with, we estimated how long we thought certain measurements were and drew this on the floor. After, using measuring tools, we actually discovered how far the lengths were. Some children were pretty accurate. Others discovered that their previous estimation of 5 mm actually represented 50 cm!

Sam and Ranita: Our 1 m line is the same length as our 100 cm line and that is because there are 100 cm in 1 m. That means, a 1000 mm line would also be the same length as 1 m.

After, we competed in the Usain Bolt challenge. Shockingly, it was revealed that Usain Bolt can run 100 m in 9.58 seconds. Thus, it was our challenge to beat him. As a class, we measured out 100 m. Then, lining up, we sprinted as far as we could in this time, before coming to an abrupt halt. From the point that we stopped, we then estimated (before actually measuring) how much further we would have to run in order to complete the 100 m race in the same time as Usain.

Finally, we had to consider how far 1 km would be. As we knew there were 1000 m in 1 km, we soon realised that 1 km was ten times the length of Usain Bolt's 100 m sprint. We then made predictions as to how far we would get if we walked 1 km from Broadford School.

Did you know that 1 km is approximately from Broadford to Central Park Leisure Centre?