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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Converting Time - Worksheet Pack
Download a set of Time Conversion printable worksheets to help your students convert between minutes, hours, days and weeks.
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Perimeter Maths Investigation – Design a Garden
Get students to design a garden with this student-centred perimeter project for middle primary students.
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Telling the Time Year 2 Tarsia Puzzle
Build students' confidence in telling the time with four engaging Tarsia puzzles that provide hands-on practise matching digital times to written forms.
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Measuring, Reading and Understanding Time Teaching Slides
Teach understanding time with this teaching slide deck, designed to help students explore duration, read analogue and digital clocks and confidently work with units of time.
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Year 3 Estimating Time Activity — Detective Challenge Worksheet
Strengthen time estimation skills with a hands-on Time Detective Challenge.
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Interpreting Timetables — Error Analysis Worksheet Pack
Practise interpreting timetables with this engaging error analysis worksheet pack.
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Telling Time Maths Mazes - 5 Minutes
Tell time to the nearest five-minute mark and make maths fun with a printable pack of Telling Time maths mazes.
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Fun Volume Activities
Bring maths to life with these fun volume activities that will have students building prisms, going on a scavenger hunt and estimating volumes!
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Area And Perimeter Word Problem Task Cards
Use these area and perimeter task cards in your maths lessons to give your students practice solving real-world word problems.
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Measuring Length Drawing Challenge Worksheeets
Make learning to use a centimetre ruler fun with an engaging set of Measurement Drawing Challenge Worksheets.
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Ordering Mass Cut and Paste Worksheets
Assist students in their knowledge of simple mass with these heaviest to lightest cut-and-paste worksheets.
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Interactive Maths Review – Activities for Years 5, 6 and 7
Review important maths concepts covered in years 5, 6 and 7 with a student-led interactive activity.
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Same Perimeter, Different Area Word Problems – Worksheet
Practise solving multi-step word problems involving objects that have the same perimeter but different areas.
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Using a Calendar Detective Task Cards
Strengthen skills in using a calendar with these engaging task cards that help students interpret dates, identify events and solve real-world calendar problems.
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Time Machine Match-Up Activity
Consolidate knowledge of time to the hour, half-hour and to the quarter-hour with this fun sorting activity.
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Measuring Length with Dinosaur Footprints - Hands-on Maths Task
Engage your students in learning about informal measurement with a 'Dino-Mite' hands-on measurement activity in which they use dinosaur footprints to measure objects around the classroom.
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Telling Time Task Cards - Hour & Half-Hour
Practise telling time to the hour and half hour with a set of printable Telling Time Task Cards.
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Volume Word Problems
Reinforce concepts of volume with these volume word problems worksheets that contain multiple problem types set in real-world scenarios.
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Conversion of Measurements Worksheets — ‘Riddle Me!’
Laugh and learn with our conversion of measurements worksheets that give students practice converting metric units of length, capacity and mass.
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Informal Mass - Heavier or Lighter Interactive
Practise using informal units of measurement to compare and estimate the mass of everyday objects with this engaging digital activity.
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Mass Calculations Word Problem Worksheets
Put mass understanding into practise with this set of three word problem worksheets.
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Paper Airplane Challenge - Measuring Distance Maths Activity
Practise measuring distance and have fun hosting a paper plane competition using a printable math investigation workbook.
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Converting Length Worksheets
Download our converting length worksheets to allow your students to demonstrate an understanding of decimal representations while converting units of metric length.
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Elapsed Time Test
Assess your students' abilities to determine elapsed time to the whole, half, and quarter-hour with a printable Elapsed Time Test.
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Telling Time to the Nearest Minute Test
Assess your student's abilities to tell time to the nearest minute with a Telling Time to the Minute Unit Test for Year 3.
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Time to the Minute - Colour by Code Worksheet
Practise how to tell time to the minute with a fun Colour in Maths worksheet.
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Perimeter of Composite Shapes Interactive Activity
Get students to answer perimeter questions with this interactive digital resource, perfect for lesson introductions and wrap-ups.
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Perimeter of Composite Shapes Worksheets
Use these perimeter of composite shapes worksheets in your maths lessons when teaching your students how to calculate more advanced perimeters.
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Perimeter Practice Problems With Visuals – Worksheet
Download these perimeter practice problems to use when exploring measurement concepts in your maths lessons.
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Roll and Cover – Telling Time to the Minute
Practise telling to the minute with this roll and cover game
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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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Three Little Pigs Area Measurement Worksheet
A measurement activity to help students understand how to measure area in squares.
- Measurement Worksheets
- Measurement Games
- Measurement Posters
- Measurement Projects
- Measurement Templates
- Measurement Teaching Presentations
- 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