Gingerbread man math non standard measuring activity

You can use this gingerbread man non-standard measuring activity to teach size, length, tally, and graphs, using the the printables from my Gingerbread Man Unit.

Gingerbread man math non standard measuring activity

Let’s explore the concept of size in a fun way, measuring with gingerbread men!

Materials needed:

:: gingerbread men (large or mini, real or printed on card)

:: selection of objects to measure

:: pens

:: gingerbread measuring sheet from the Gingerbread Man Unit

Learning about size is an important concept in maths, and in life. Many practical aspects of everyday life require us to understand, estimate, and sometimes accurately measure sizes: when we slice a loaf to make lunch for our family, when we drive and park a car, when we buy furniture – to name just a few.

In early math learning we want our children to become familiar and confident with simple aspects of measuring and this candy cane measuring activity will help support the development of these skills.

Begin with two objects of different lengths: perhaps a banana and a toy car. Chat with your children about which is bigger, which is smaller. How big are they? What words can you use
to describe their size? You can use lots of mathematical language here: big, small, bigger, smaller, tiny, huge, long, short.

Then introduce the idea of measurement. If you wanted to ask someone to bring you a banana or a car of a particular size, how could you tell them which size to give you? What could you use to measure your banana or car? Before we move on to using rulers or tape measures, we can learn about the concept of measurement using non-standard measures. Let’s try with gingerbread men!

How many gingerbread men tall is your banana? What about your car? Lay out gingerbread men alongside them and count how many each measures.

Ask your children to work alone, in pairs or as a group to measure other things around the room in gingerbread men.

Can they guess – estimate – how many gingerbread men long things are? Then they can measure them to see if they were accurate.

How many gingerbread men tall are they?

They can collate their findings on the gingerbread measuring printable from the Gingerbread Unit, as a simple grid or table.

You might like to extend this activity by collating results and showing them as a bar or line graph.

You can also offer rulers and tape measures and talk about how they provide a standard measurement unit. How does a gingerbread man compare to a centimetre or inch?