Students use different Cuisenaire rods to measure the height of the pictures. Students first used the actual Cuisenaire rods to measure. Although the Cuisenaire rods are based on centimeter measurements, this activity is similar to ones in which the students use non-standard units to measure. In this case, there are many ways to measure the height of the teddy bear: 4 light green 12 white 3 purple 6 red 2 dark green

The students then measured the height of the bus. After measuring with the actual manipulatives, they then found the paper Cuisenaire cut-outs to match and glued them on the paper. The height of the bus is: 1 black 7 white

The height of the dinosaur: 1 brown 2 purple 4 red 8 white Completing the activity on the centimeter grid paper provided guidelines for the students to match and line up the Cuisenaire rods.

After measuring the three objects, students were asked to explain which was the tallest. Very interesting discussions arose. The dinosaur is shorter than the bear because the bear is 3 purple and the dinosaur is 2 purple. However, the bus was not measured with purple. One student measured the bus with red, and found that it was 3 and a half red. Meaning it was the shortest object. Other students realized that the white unit was the only unit all three objects could be measured with exactly. This is a basic understanding of comparing measurements using like units.

Students also answered questions like:
Why does it take more red rods to measure the dinosaur than brown rods?

Students start to understand that the larger the unit used to measure an object, the fewer units it will take. This becomes important later on when student convert between units such as inches and feet. Or meters and kilometers. A measurement using inches as its unit will be a much larger number than a measurement using feet.

Indictors:
3.K.2.1 use nonstandard units to measure length
3.1.3.1 compare the length, weight, and capacity of two or more
objects by using direct comparison or nonstandard units.