Measuring Weight - The Complete Series (5 lessons)

They will explore the different units of measurement used to measure weight and their relationships to each other, how to estimate the weights of different objects and how to check these estimates, as well as solving problems about weight and finding out some fascinating facts!

With lesson plans, informative slides, differentiated worksheets and more, these Year 4 'Measuring Weight' lessons provide all the resources you need to teach this fun and practical scheme of work, lifting the planning weight completely off your shoulders!

The first lesson in this series starts by looking at the relationship between kilograms and grams, and identifies their abbreviations. Children will then go on to consider objects around them that could (and should) be measured in grams or kilograms, before using a variety of objects to estimate and weigh, using the appropriate unit of measurement. The alternative activity has a team game that will challenge groups to find objects of particular weights before their rivals!

This lesson encourages children to explore different ways of expressing the same weight by converting grams to kilograms (expressing the answer as a decimal), as well as expressing the amount using both kilograms and grams. There is also the challenge of re-arranging the digits of a number to create as many ways of expressing a weight as they can think of, including converting a weight from grams to kilograms and vice versa.

The questions throughout the slides for this lesson get progressively harder as children work out how to add and subtract different weights, including weights with one decimal place and two weights that are expressed in different units of measurements. The slides show some different strategies for solving such problems, including using a number line, and vertical addition and subtraction. The independent learning activities have plenty of problems for children to solve, including solving problems involving animal weights!

Now that children have some strategies under their belts to add and subtract weights, they can put their skills to the test as they solve a variety of word problems relating to length. There are a variety of problems for children to solve as a class on the slides (with explanations for how problems were solved if they get stuck) to prepare them for solving similar problems independently.

The final lesson in this series gives your class the chance to find out some fascinating facts about weight! Starting with looking at some record-breaking fruits and vegetables on the slides, children can then explore a variety of weird and wonderful facts about weight for themselves during their independent learning.