Activity – Making a measuring stick for beans
We decided to make a ruler to see how high the beans would grow. The staff thought that the pole or rod would have to be marked with something waterproof in order to last outdoors. We collected three different rolls of insulating tape.
This adivcy was done outdoors.
We explained to the small group what the large cane was for. The three children present at the time, chose their colour and talked about who would go first. Each child rolled the tape around the pole till a certain length was covered and they then cut the tape. This went on several times. One of the children noticed the pattern emerging. A fourth child came along and asked if she could help. She wanted to be the "cutter". As we were nearing the end of the pole, another child came over to help. The member of staff asked if he could find a plant marker in the tool cupboard. This prompted the question "Like I writed on last time” (he had written a marker for the beans last Friday). "Yes, can you remmnber what it looks like?”. He ran to the cupboard and got one. Another child who had heard the conversation also brought one and these were attached to the top end of the pole. The child then went in search of a pen, unfortunately one couldn't be found so he said he would do it tomorrow.
We placed the measure next to the beans. The children took turns to count how many colours high the beans were. Today they were 4 red, 5 white and 3 blue strips high.
Evaluation
Although this was a relatively short activity each of the children worked cooperatively and fairly with each other. They reminded each other when it was their turn. The child at the end of the pole held it in place so that no one else would get hurt or prodded. The child had good scissor control. The boy followed instructions on where to find the label.
It also incorporated both mathematical language and counting and pattern recognition.