MATH: Measuring with Inches

We have been working hard on measuring with rulers this week. We've focused most of our time on measuring with inches.

Students have gone through a progression, starting with measuring a line to the nearest inch, then measuring a line to the nearest half-inch, and then measuring a line to the nearest quarter-inch, which is clearly the trickiest.

To help identify the quarter-inch "system" (which is tricky because it also involves all the whole-inch marks as well as the half-inch marks), we've been using the analogy of a cricket hopping by quarter-inches. Like this:
Then, when we go to measure a line to the nearest quarter-inch, we first see how many WHOLE inches we've passed, then look closely to the remaining quarter-inches:

We have to decide which quarter-inch mark the line comes closest to, and record the measurement correctly, which also takes some skill.

A relevant discussion we had today was the idea that sometimes your "answer" might change, depending on if you are asked to measure to the nearest whole, half, or quarter inch.

We've also been practicing measurement to the nearest whole centimeter, nearest half-centimeter, and nearest millimeter.

Please take some time at home to do some "real-life" measuring situations with inches and centimeters. Thanks!