Lesson video

One seconds.

Well hold on, hold on.

There, I just had to finish that chapter before starting the lesson.

I hope you don't mind.

I do enjoy reading a good book, one that really grips me and keeps me hooked because of the characters or the storylines and this book is definitely doing that, so I had to finish the chapter.

so that I can then focus on this mass lesson with you.

If you have any distractions around you as well, then like I have put them to the side, take yourself off into a different space if you need to, so that you can focus on your learning for the next 20 minutes.

Press pause, go and get yourself sorted and come back when you're ready to start.

In this lesson, we are choosing and using appropriate units of Measure for capacity, length and mass.

We'll start the lesson off by looking at a picture and answering two questions.

What can we measure? And how can we measure it? Then I'm going to introduce you to some common benchmarks, and I'll explain what I mean by those later.

All of this will leave you ready for your independent task.

So the things that you're going to need.

A pen or pencil, some paper or a pad or book.

Plus, if you have them, a ruler, some kitchen scales and measuring jug, but only if you have them.

If you don't, it's not a problem.

Press pause, go and collect as many of those things as you can and come back when you're ready.

let's start off with this picture.

Have a look.

What do you notice that you could measure? How would you measure it? And which units of measure would you use? Press pause, use the three questions and the drawing.

Come back when you're ready to share.

How did you get on? What did you notice? But there are many things that you could measure.

And what would you use to measure them? And the units? Let's have a look at some parts of this picture.

I wonder if you noticed them as well.

Did you notice the statue? How about the teapot and cups, the chopsticks or the cat? Looking at these four items, how could you measure them? What about them could you tell me? Good, Yes, you could tell me their mass for all of them.

You could tell me their mass.

Is there something else you could tell me a about all of them? Good, you could tell me the length or the height of all of those items. Now, is there a type of measure we've not mentioned? Yes, capacity.

I wonder if for all of these, we could measure a capacity or only for some.

What do you think? Point to the one or ones that you think we could measure the capacity of? Oh, I can feel that there has a lot of pointing right here.

We could measure the capacity of the tea cup.

Sorry, the tea pot, or those three cups, but for the other items, we couldn't measure their capacity.

We could measure their mass or their length or height.

Okay, so we've thought about what we could measure , which units of measure would we use for those different measurements.

The chopstick, if we were measuring its length, or the capacity of the teapot and cups or the mass of the statue, which units from the cloud, could we use for each of those for length, capacity and mass? Press pause, and match up, work out which of these units would match each of those types of measure? Come back when you're ready? How did you get on? Did you manage to sort and match all of them? Okay, so let's take a look.

Let's remove the cloud.

There they are.

Which of those units would we use if we were measuring a length or height, anymore? How many is that? three units.

Good.

We could use metres, centimetres or millimetres to measure a length or height.

How about for capacity? How many of those Could we use for capacity? Show me on your fingers.

Two, we could use two of them, save them to me.

litres or millilitres, good.

What about for mass? It's the final two, isn't it? Name them please.

Good, kilogrammes or grammes.

So we can make these three different types of measurement.

And for each of them, we can use different units.

But why is there more than one unit for each category? Why are there three choices when it comes to length? At least from what I've got on the screen, and again, why have we got two the massive capacity on the screen at the moment? Have a think.

What do you think? Just tell me, tell me now.

Good, good thinking, good explanations there.

We need to have more than one type of unit available.

Imagine you were measuring the length of an ant and I gave you a metre stick to use.

The ant is such a small fraction of the metre, it would be really difficult to use the metre stick to record the length accurately.

Also think about the distance between say, Birmingham and New York City.

If I said to you, measure that distance in millimetres, there would just be so many millimetres between those two cities that the number you would end up with would be far too large.

So it would make sense for the distance between cities to measure using kilometres, and kilometres isn't in this list, but it's another unit of measure of length.

If we use a really large unit, when we're measuring something that is large, it's going to give us a more appropriate solution and the same with measuring something small, like the length of an ant, would like use a small unit of measurement like millimetres to again give us a more accurate and sensible solution.

Time for a task.

In green, there are some statements and in the red colour, there are some estimations, some estimated masses, capacities and lengths.

Now they are not matching the correct statement.

So, for example, mass of a bag of crisps, six millimetres is not the appropriate estimation , is the wrong unit for one.

Your job, Press pause and match up the estimations with each of the statements.

Come back when you're ready to check.

Ready? Have you managed to match up correctly the different measurements With their estimations? okay, let's look.

So I've cleared away the estimations.

Let's take them one at a time.

What was your estimate for the length of an ounce? Good, six millimetres.

a small unit for a small measurement and we're estimating six.

How about the length of a mobile phone? Good, centimetres this time and length, but 12 of them.

The height of a man.

so still thinking about the length, height of a man.

one metre and 80 centimetres.

The distance from London to Manchester, 260 kilometres.

Let's think about some mass now.

The mass of a bag of crisps.

Good, that's two grammes.

And the mass of a bag of sugar? One kilogramme.

How much liquid a four kettle contains? One and a half litres, leaving us with, how much liquid a can of fizzy drink contains? 300 and 13 million litres.

Good work.

Common measurement benchmarks.

These are going to help you with your activity.

In your activity, I'm going to ask you to estimate the mass, the capacity, the length of a series of objects, and to help you make those estimations and to be as accurate as possible, these common measurement benchmarks will help.

For example, I don't have a paperclip but I do have a safety pin, and I'm going to replace that paperclip for the safety pin.

The safety pin, can you see it? The safety pin mass is one gramme.

This is what one gramme feels like compared to the bag of sugar.

Now, this bag of sugar has been opened, but before I opened it, to do some baking, can you see at the bottom there? That was the light shining.

There you go.

There was one kilogramme of sugar in this bag.

So it's a bit less than a kilogramme, maybe only a couple of hundred grammes less, but this is roughly what therefore, one kilogramme feels like when it's full.

So, with that feeling of one kilogramme, and one gramme, if I'm estimating the mass of a pencil, I can think which of those two, where does the mass of the pencil sit between them.

When it comes to length, I haven't got an ounce close by.

And I don't think I would be able to slow it down to measure its length anyway, but I do have a ruler, a 30 centimetre ruler, and this again, as a visual.

I know what a 30 centimetre ruler looks like.

So if I'm measuring the length of the leg of a chair, Then I can visualise this ruler to help me make my estimate.

Liquid capacity, a teaspoon , I'm sure you've got a teaspoon in the kitchen, fetch one during the activity and then visualise, think the amount of liquid it could hold is around six millilitres compared to the capacity of a carton 1000 millilitres one litre.

If I'm estimating the capacity of something, I'm thinking okay, six millilitres in a teaspoon or 1000 millilitres in a carton, where does my item sit between them? Task wise then The estimates are the most important part.

This is what I'm most interested in.

So we've got four measurements and another five measurements.

I'd like you for each of them to estimate their mass, their length, or their capacity.

For example, thinking about the mass of the pencil.

As a common benchmark, a bag of crisps.

Mass is 32 grammes.

So if a packet of crisps measures 32 grammes, I would estimate a pencils mass to be.

So from that benchmark and that feel, that knowledge of how a bag of crisps feels, you make your estimate for the mass of a pencil in comparison.

Or, if we were thinking about the length of a book, I was reading a book at the start.

Wasn't I? Now if I visualise a 30 centimetre ruler, and compare that to my book, I can make my estimates for the books length more accurately.

If you do have a ruler, measuring jug or kitchen scales, then you can also measure and find the actual measurement of the masses, lengths and capacities.

But if you haven't got those items, don't worry.

All of your learning here is on connecting common benchmarks with estimates.

And that's the bit that I'm most interested in.

Press pause.

Complete your activity and come back when you're ready to share.

How did you get on? Were you able to find an estimate for each of those items? And which common benchmarks did you use? For example, when you were thinking about the mass of a pencil case? Which common benchmark came to mind? Good, how about for the length of the table leg? Okay, and what about the length of rubber? Did your common benchmark change? Finally, how about the capacity of a plastic cup? Which common benchmark did you use to help with your estimation? Good work.

out of all of the items that you were either estimating or measuring, which was the lightest? Have a quick look at your paper.

In fact, hold your pay per Up.

Let me see what you were able to record or how you were recording today.

Okay, looking good.

So now have a quick look through and shout out to me, which was the lightest item you weighed? Okay, and which item had the greatest capacity? Good, and which item was the longest? Finally, was there any item , which weighed over double of another item? This might be a point to pause and maybe spend some time answering that question as the lesson ends.

For these questions you can think about your estimates or your actual measurements or both.

If you would like to share any of your fantastic work from this lesson with Oak National, please ask your parents or carer to share your work on Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

Well done everyone.

That was a fantastic lesson.

I really hope you enjoyed the opportunity to be practical.

And I also hope that some of those common measurement benchmarks stay with you, whenever you're measuring or estimating capacities, masses and lengths.

Am going to get back to my book now.

Think I've earned an opportunity to have a little bit of break between my to do list for the day.

I think that you've also earned the right to a break after working so hard in that math lesson.

And if you have any other learning lined up for the day, then do take a moment to relax in between sessions.

Thank you for joining me and I Hope to see you again soon.

Bye.