Measurement Teaching Resources
Is your maths class ready to dive into length measurement, measuring objects and more measurement practice? Say hello to printable units of measurement worksheets, games and digital activities created by teachers for teachers!
This collection of teaching resources was created by our expert maths teachers to help students meet Australian Curriculum standards. Each printable and digital download has undergone a rigorous review by the teachers on the Teach Starter team to ensure they’re student-ready — so you can cut down on lesson planning time!
New to teaching this part of the maths curriculum? Our teacher team knows what it’s like to suddenly teach a brand-new year level, so we’ve put together a quick guide to teaching measurement!
What Are the 4 steps of Teaching and Learning Measurement?
Students have to learn a long list of measurement concepts during their time in primary school, including:
- length
- liquid volume
- elapsed time
- mass (weight)
- area
- volume of three-dimensional figures
The good news for teachers: Most measurement concepts have very real-world applications for students. That means there's a whole world of ways to get students excited about reading a ruler or tape measure or weighing heavy objects on a scale.
But before you can get there, let's start with the basic steps to work through when you're teaching students how to measure ... well ... anything!
- Direct Comparison — One of the earliest steps of learning measurement is learning the attributes that are being measured. For example, students need to learn what length is if they're ever going to measure it. That's where direct comparison (and step 2, indirect comparison), come in. If you put 2 objects side by side, students can directly compare which is longer and which is shorter and start to understand how to measure an object.
- Indirect Comparison — What happens when you can't directly compare two objects? You can add a third as a reference point for indirect comparison, thereby increasing student understanding of the attribute being measured.
- Measuring With Non-Standard Units or Informal Units — Just as students need to understand the attribute of measuring, they also need to understand the concept of the units we use to measure such as metres or litres. Using non-standard units is the first step to teaching the concept of units, offering students the chance to work with different objects, counting how many of these 'units' it takes to make up another. This is the fundamental base of measurement.
- Measuring With Standard Units — In the final step of teaching measurement, students move on to using the formal units of measurement and learn to use measurement instruments.
Why Is Teaching Measurement Important?
There are concrete uses for learning measurement that will surely spring to mind — from using a tape measure to measure a space in a home to weighing ingredients when baking to determining the capacity of a juice glass before pouring in the liquid. These are all means for quantifying our environment.
But the benefits of teaching students about measuring lines with a ruler or figuring out mass measurements from largest to smallest go well beyond the obvious. Learning to measure helps students develop spatial and number skills.
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Elapsed Time Number Search Worksheets
Review how to find elapsed time and practise learned skills with engaging Elapsed Time Number Search worksheets!
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Time to the Hour & Half-Hour Playdough Mats
Use playdough to practise telling time to the hour and half hour with printable playdough mats for early years.
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What Can You Do? Year 1 Estimating Time Printables
Help your students understand time increments with a pair of cut-and-paste maths worksheets for year 1.
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Telling Time Printable Games for Year 2
Help your students learn to tell time to the 5 minutes with this set of 6 printable Telling the Time games.
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Time by the Minute - Year 3 Maths Interactive
Practise telling time by the minute with an interactive Time-telling digital learning activity.
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24-Hour Time Memory - Year 5 Maths Game
Practise converting 12-hour and 24-hour times with this fun 24-Hour Time Game.
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Telling the Time Year 2 Tarsia Puzzle
Solve the tarsia puzzle and practise matching digital times with their corresponding word forms.
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Time Elapsed Anchor Chart - Printable
Show students how to calculate elapsed time on an open number line with a printable elapsed time anchor chart.
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Time to the Minute Poke Cards
Practise reading analogue clocks and telling time to the minute with this set of self-checking poke cards.
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Months of the Year Playdough Mats
Use playdough mats to help your students identify, sequence and spell the months of the year.
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Telling Time to the Minute – Kaboom Game
Practise telling time to the minute with an exciting game of Telling Time Kaboom!
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Elapsed Time Worksheet
Determine how much time has passed with this collection of elapsed time word problems.
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Telling Time to the Minute – Memory Game
Practise telling time to the minute with a printable time-to-the-minute game.
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Measuring Area Using Informal Units Interactive Activity
Use this set of ten interactive slides to help your students practise measuring the area of regular and irregular shapes using informal (square) units.
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Perimeter and Area Digital Puzzles
Give students practice finding the area and perimeter of squares and rectangles with these digital area and perimeter puzzles.
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Finding the Perimeter of a Rectangle Poster
Teach students the formula for the perimeter of a rectangle with this colorful classroom poster for your math bulletin board.
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Area and Perimeter Haunted House - Year 5 Halloween Maths
Design your own haunted house and practise finding the perimeter and area of rectangular figures with an exciting Halloween mathss Activity!
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Area of a Parallelogram Worksheet
Practise finding the area of a parallelogram with this maths worksheet designed for year 7 students.
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Time to the Minute and Elapsed Time – Teaching PowerPoint
Teach telling the time to the nearest minute and calculate elapsed time with this 18-slide PowerPoint for teachers.
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I Have, Who Has? – Time to the Minute
Practise telling time to the nearest minute with this set of 'I Have, Who Has' game cards.
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Volume with Unit Cubes – Worksheet
Use this worksheet to reinforce how to find the volume of a rectangular prism by counting the number of unit cubes.
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Perimeter with Missing Sides – Word Problems Worksheet
Practise solving real-life perimeter word problems with an unknown side with this worksheet.
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Reading Scales – Measuring Mass Worksheet
A worksheet for students to use when learning to read scaled instruments to measure mass.
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Reading Scales – Measuring Mass Match-Up Worksheet
A worksheet to give students practice at reading scales to measure mass.
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I Have, Who Has? Game – Measuring Mass with Scales
A game to reinforce the skill of reading scaled instruments when measuring mass.
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Volume and Capacity Activity — 'Splash World' Maths Investigation
Use this volume and capacity activity to expose your students to real-world volume applications by letting them design 'Splash World' — their very own waterpark!
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Number Talks - Volume Task Cards
Build number sense skills with this set of 26 task cards.
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Number Talks - Geometry Task Cards
Build geometric reasoning with this set of 24 task cards.
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Which Holds More? – Mini Book
A mini book that allows students to compare the capacity of various containers.
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Which Holds More? – Interactive PowerPoint
An interactive PowerPoint quiz that asks students to compare the capacity of various containers.
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Which Is Heavier? – Interactive PowerPoint
An interactive PowerPoint quiz that asks students to compare the mass of various everyday objects.
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When Does It Happen? Worksheet
A cut and paste activity where students order familiar daily events.
- Measurement Worksheets
- Measurement Games
- Measurement Posters
- Measurement Templates
- Measurement Teaching Presentations
- Measurement Projects
- Measurement for Preschool/Kindergarten
- Measurement for Foundation Year
- Measurement for Year 1
- Measurement for Year 2
- Measurement for Year 3
- Measurement for Year 4
- Measurement for Year 5
- Measurement for Year 6
- Measurement for Year 7