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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Time and Elapsed Time - Task Cards
Solve a variety of time and elapsed time problems with a set of Elapsed Time to the Hour and Half-Hour task cards.
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Hours, Seconds & Minutes - Estimating Time Sort
Estimate activities that take about a second, minute, hour, and week with a printable units of time sorting activity.
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Clock Worksheet Cut and Paste– 5-Minute Intervals
Use a clock worksheet to cut, paste and build a clock with five minute increments.
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Four in a Row - Tell the Time Clock Game -Hour and Half Hour
Play a Four in a Row Telling Time Game to demonstrate the ability to tell time to the nearest hour and half hour.
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When Does It Happen? – Sorting Activity
Identify activities that happen in the morning, afternoon, and at night with a Time of Day Sorting activity for Foundations students.
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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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Time to 5 Minutes - Google Slides Game
Practise telling time to the nearest five minutes with an engaging Telling Time Mystery Picture Game!
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Elapsed Time Word Problems Game
Practise solving elapsed time word problems with an interactive Year 3 maths game.
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Differentiated Elapsed Time Word Problems - Worksheets
Calculate time between events with a set of printable elapsed time worksheets.
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Days of the Week Poster
Display the days of the week with a bright and cheery Days of the Week Poster.
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Area (Measuring Regular and Irregular Shapes) Interactive Activity
Assign this colourful area interactive activity in your next math class to help students practise measuring the area of regular and irregular shapes!
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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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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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Telling Time Puzzle - Quarter Hour
A fun puzzle to use when learning how to tell the time to the quarter-hour, using the language of 'past' and 'to'
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Elapsed Time – Worksheet
A worksheet for students to practise calculating elapsed time.
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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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Measuring, Comparing and Ordering Capacity Worksheet
A worksheet that explores the concept of capacity using informal units of measurement.
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Clock Reading & Elapsed Time Quiz
Assess your students' knowledge of telling time to the minute and working with elapsed time with this 2-page Telling Time Quiz.
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Mass Maths Investigation - How Much Do We Throw Away?
A mathematics investigation about measuring mass, embedded in a real-world context.
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Tick Tock Time Conversion Task Cards
Review how to convert units of time with a pack of printable time conversion task cards.
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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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Year 2 Telling Time Game - Hour and Half Hour Ice Cream Match
Create a maths centre to practise telling time to the hour and half hour with a printable ice cream matching game.
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Time to the Minute Quiz - Year 3
Practise telling time to the minute with an engaging Year 3 Telling Time Quiz game.
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What Does the Clock Say? - Telling the Time Game
Solve the math riddles and read analogue clocks with a fun Time to 5 Minute Telling Time Game.
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Telling the Time Bingo – Mixed Times
Thirty-two different bingo cards using analogue clocks.
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Interactive Area Puzzle (Squares and Rectangles)
Find the area of 16 shapes on the board and match the corresponding pieces to reveal a mystery picture.
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Telling Time to the Nearest Five Minutes – Interactive Activities
Read different clock faces to the nearest 5 minutes with two difficulty levels for varied abilities.
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Volume Vocabulary Poster
A poster that explains the concept of volume and lists associated vocabulary.
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Units of Time Poster
A poster highlighting how we measure time in days, weeks, months and years.
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Measuring Volume Worksheet
A worksheet to use when exploring the concept of volume.
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My Recipe Rules - Measurement Worksheet
A worksheet using money and measurement concepts.
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Volume and Capacity Colouring Worksheets
A set of 6 colouring worksheets aimed at improving each student's basic understanding of volume and capacity.
- 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