Let’s Use a Ruler - The Complete Series (5 lessons)

The included lesson plans, slides and printable resources will help you guide your class through the process of using a ruler to measure in different ways. Each of these five lessons come with differentiated activity ideas as well as an alternative activity.

Teach your class to being to estimate and compare different lengths whilst familiarising them with the lengths of 30 cm and 1 m. Have your children begin to explore using rulers by comparing different objects to them. Can your more confident children begin to estimate the lengths of various objects?

Introduce your class to the method of using a ruler to measure. This lesson helps your children become experts in measuring with a ruler by asking them to think of tips they would give to others. They practise their measuring and have the opportunity to apply this understanding to draw lines of a specified length and measure curved lines using string.

Challenge your class to measure classroom objects using their understanding of how to use a ruler to measure length. Teach them how to record a measurement that does not line up with the cm markers exactly and how to measure trickier objects. Have the children estimate the lengths of objects and check their estimations.

Revisit the comparison symbols of and = and have your class use them to compare the different lengths and measurements of different objects. Encourage your children to read out the comparison sentences they create to consolidate their understanding of these symbols.

Introduce different pieces of measuring equipment to your class, including trundle wheels and tape measures. Investigate their uses and what sort of objects and distances they would be used to measure. Challenge your class to pick the most suitable piece of equipment to use when measuring different objects in the playground.