Here is a super simple preschool measuring activity for the whole family! Early math skills start with lots of playful opportunities that don’t even have to be planned ahead of time. Encourage mathematical investigation for kindergarten and preschool with a simple measuring activity like this one. Measuring different items takes place everyday and here we chose to use our unifix cubes to measure hands and feet. Check out all our preschool math activities!
Preschool Measuring Activity with Unifix Cubes
MEASURING WITH UNIFIX CUBES
Today we practiced measuring our hands, feet and shoes. All of us, including Daddy too! The goal was to see, by measuring, who had the longest hand and foot. OK, kind of easy to tell but he was happy lining up the unifix cubes and counting them. Creating visuals and allowing children to explore mathematics in a hands-on way is vital to brain development.
MEASURING WITH BLOCKS?
Yes! Although we typically think of measuring things by pulling out a ruler, we can teach kindergarten and preschoolers the concept of measurement with this simple activity.
A couple important things to remember is that the item you use to measure with, in our case unifix cubes or the DUPLO below, should all be the same size and type. They should also be carefully placed end to end. Using an assortment of random size objects just won’t work!
MEASURING ACTIVITY
SIMPLE SET UP
Set out large pieces of paper, markers, and unifix cubes (LEGO or small blocks work too!)
HOW TO MEASURE YOUR HANDS AND FEET
STEP 1. Take turns tracing your hands, feet and shoes onto the paper with a little help as needed.
I had Liam practice his letters by writing an M, a D and a L for each person inside each tracing. Depending on the letter we made dots for him to follow, guided his hand or let him have it. We also decided to practice writing his name.
TIP: Feel free to color and decorate your feet and hands if your child is interested. You certainly can explore all avenues of early learning, not just math. 
STEP 2. Start at the bottom of each foot, hand or shoe and carefully line up the unifix cubes until you get to the highest point.
We talked a bit about looking for the highest point and although the top of the hand could be several places, we were looking for the highest, tallest part to line up our cubes and measure.
STEP 3. After you have finished lining up one page (feet first) count the number of unifix cubes. You can write down how many you counted by each one.
STEP 4. Repeat this same sequence for each hand, foot or shoe and then go back to compare results. Who had the longest hands or feet?
You can also use your blocks or cubes to measure the height or length of toys. Measure a room, measure the height of the table, measure the length of a shoe. The possibilities are endless!
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See what other preschool math activities we have been enjoying! Click photo.
Excellent way to explore measurement! I’ll be featuring it this week for Discover & Explore – thanks for linking up!