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This post has been co-written with Ben Wolfson, a full-time educator and assistant principal in the USA.
Kindergartener students are unusually obsessed with height and size. Ask any of your students who the tallest kid is in class and they’ll have that information right at the tip of their tongue. It’s down to their increasing self-awareness combined with the fact that for many of them, it’s the first time that they’ve been surrounded by dozens of kids their own age, and they want to know how they stack up.
Fortunately, it’s easy to tie into this height obsession by teaching measurement skills. These cute flower measurement cards give you the opportunity to talk about how to measure accurately as well as bringing some flower power into your classroom.
Preparing Flower Measurement Cards
For this activity you will need:
Paper
Printer
Unifix cubes, links or some form of counting token for non-standard measurement or a tape measure for standard measurement
Optional: laminator
If you don’t have the materials needed, don’t sweat! You can get it delivered to your doorstep really quickly with Amazon Prime. You can get a 30-day free trial here.
Key Skills For Teaching Measurement
Many kindergarten teachers steer clear of formal methods of measurement such as inches or centimeters because students quickly start to run into fractions and reading ticks on a ruler. These are tough skills to master, so it’s often easier to use non-standard measuring tools like base 10 blocks or unifix cubes. Both of these work for this height measurement printable, and you can use these spring measurement activities to practice the following measurement skills:
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Start at one end – when they’re measuring height, your kindergarten students know to start at their feet and measure where their heads come to. Strangely, when it comes to measuring the plants on this height measurement printable, they’ll often start in the middle. Fortunately, you can make sure that they start at the roots and build up by comparing them to a flower.
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Keep everything straight – if you’re choosing to use a ruler, your students won’t have any problem measuring the straight line next to each flower. However, as soon as you introduce non-standard measuring tools, you’ll find variances in their answers because they’ll allow their measuring lines to bend and curve. As with all math skills at this age, practice makes progress, and you can use all of the flower measurement cards to help them develop their accurate measuring skills.
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Double check – it’s never too soon to teach them the foundation of the old adage “measure twice, cut once”! With these flower measurement cards, you can have them sit next to a partner and compare their answers. This attention to accurate measuring and making sure that another person has the same answer as them are both key mathematical skills that they’ll need further down the line.
What Comes Next?
Once your students have completed all the spring measurement activities on these cards, you can take your teaching measurement lessons further in a couple of different directions. If you’re using these during spring time, then you can get your students out in the real world to find actual plants and flowers to measure. If you’re planning on staying indoors, challenge them to scoot around the classroom to find other objects that have the same height as each of the flowers. This activity will encourage them to use visual estimation as well as some trial and error skills, both of which will help them with further geometry skills.
Looking for more ways to practice kindergarten math skills? I’ve got you covered!
5 amazing worksheet packs are included in this bundle covering everything from number recognition, counting to 20, subitizing, addition to 10, subtraction within 10, word problems, number sequence, comparing numbers, and much more!
Perfect for kindergarten students as homework, morning work, or no-prep math centers in the classroom! Have these on stand-by for fast finishers or substitute teachers!
Pair These Books with the Flower Theme Printable:
Other Spring Printables You’ll Love:
1) May Spring Printable Worksheets Pack – 50 pages of free printable worksheets including a variety of literacy, math, and fine motor activities.
2) Spring Flowers Draw and Count – Students will need to draw the number of flowers stated on the page.
3) Spring Code Words – Solve the coded puzzle to find out the Spring themed vocabulary words.
4) Spring Counting Clipcards – This activity is perfect for preschool number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, and counting skills.
5) Spring Color By Number Pack – There are 6 spring-themed color-by-number pages included in this pack.
6) Bird Theme 3 Part Cards – Set up this free printable as proper 3 part cards for a spring literacy activity or as a preschool science center to help your students learn the names of different birds.
7) Weather Math Worksheets Pack – 9 different math worksheets inside this weather-themed activity pack for working on number order, shapes, counting etc.
8) Count The Kites 1-10 – Practice counting while strengthening their little hand muscles at the same time with this set of counting clip cards.
9) Raindrops Counting Frames – Keep your kids busy indoors with this rain-themed counting activity.
10) Missing Number Eggs – Practice counting from 1-20 with this cut and paste activity.
Get The Tools You Need For This Center Here:
Browse Other Popular Math Printables:
1) Parking Cars Tracing Lines – More than 10 different tracing line patterns to choose from, all of which help with pencil control.
2) Scarecrow Arrange By Size – 3 different scarecrow-themed image sets that they will arrange from smallest to biggest.
3) Bumblebee Addition Game – Solve the sum and help the bee land on the correct flower!
4) Farm Shapes Mats – Use playdough, pompoms, stickers etc to learn 2D shapes.
5) Popsicle Stick Number Formation – Kids will love forming the numbers 1 to 10 when ice cream and popsicles are involved!
6) Valentines Printable Worksheets Pack – 50 pages of mixed literacy and math activities.
7) Zoo Animals Number Puzzle Strips – Complete these cute puzzles and learn the numbers 1 to 20.
8) Counting Colorful Bugs – This printable book will help kids count to 10 while also learning about color words.
9) Humpty Dumpty Numbers – In this printable game, your students will practice number recognition using 1 dice or simple addition when using 2 dice.
10) Build A Number Santa – Match the number to the correct number word, tally mark and domino to form a Santa Claus
