Multi-Step Measurement Problems
10 min
Narrative
This Warm-up prompts students to make sense of a problem before solving it, by familiarizing themselves with a context and the mathematics that might be involved. While students may notice and wonder about many things, highlight observations or questions about the relative sizes of the measurements in different units.
Launch
- Groups of 2
- Display the image.
- “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”
- 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
- “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
- 1 minute: partner discussion
- Share and record responses.
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
| animal | distance traveled in a day |
|---|---|
| three-toed sloth | 30 meters |
| snail | 2,500 centimeters |
| dromedary | 40 kilometers |
| giant tortoise | 300 meters |
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- Four animals are listed.
- The numbers are two, three, and four digits (or in the tens, hundreds, and thousands).
- All the numbers end in a 0.
- Three different units of lengths are used (kilometers, meters, and centimeters).
- Most of the animals are slow-moving animals.
Students may wonder:
- Why are the distances in different units?
- Which of these distances is the shortest? Which is the longest?
- How might we compare distances in kilometers and centimeters?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
- “Can these distances be compared?”
Standards
Building Toward
- 4.MD.2·Use the four operations to solve word problems involving distances, intervals of time, liquid volumes, masses of objects, and money, including problems involving simple fractions or decimals, and problems that require expressing measurements given in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Represent measurement quantities using diagrams such as number line diagrams that feature a measurement scale.
- 4.MD.A.2·Use the four operations to solve word problems involving distances, intervals of time, liquid volumes, masses of objects, and money, including problems involving simple fractions or decimals, and problems that require expressing measurements given in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Represent measurement quantities using diagrams such as number line diagrams that feature a measurement scale.
20 min
15 min
Knowledge Components
All skills for this lesson
No KCs tagged for this lesson
Multi-Step Measurement Problems
10 min
Narrative
This Warm-up prompts students to make sense of a problem before solving it, by familiarizing themselves with a context and the mathematics that might be involved. While students may notice and wonder about many things, highlight observations or questions about the relative sizes of the measurements in different units.
Launch
- Groups of 2
- Display the image.
- “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”
- 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
- “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
- 1 minute: partner discussion
- Share and record responses.
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
| animal | distance traveled in a day |
|---|---|
| three-toed sloth | 30 meters |
| snail | 2,500 centimeters |
| dromedary | 40 kilometers |
| giant tortoise | 300 meters |
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- Four animals are listed.
- The numbers are two, three, and four digits (or in the tens, hundreds, and thousands).
- All the numbers end in a 0.
- Three different units of lengths are used (kilometers, meters, and centimeters).
- Most of the animals are slow-moving animals.
Students may wonder:
- Why are the distances in different units?
- Which of these distances is the shortest? Which is the longest?
- How might we compare distances in kilometers and centimeters?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
- “Can these distances be compared?”
Standards
Building Toward
- 4.MD.2·Use the four operations to solve word problems involving distances, intervals of time, liquid volumes, masses of objects, and money, including problems involving simple fractions or decimals, and problems that require expressing measurements given in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Represent measurement quantities using diagrams such as number line diagrams that feature a measurement scale.
- 4.MD.A.2·Use the four operations to solve word problems involving distances, intervals of time, liquid volumes, masses of objects, and money, including problems involving simple fractions or decimals, and problems that require expressing measurements given in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Represent measurement quantities using diagrams such as number line diagrams that feature a measurement scale.