Based on their personal experiences, children come to kindergarten understanding much about measurement, including the language of comparing objects by an attribute. They know who got “more” crackers, whose piece of cake is “bigger”, which brother is “taller”, whose tower of blocks is “higher”, who can run “faster.” They know what happens when someone heavier than they are gets on the other end of a teeter-totter.
In kindergarten they have multiple additional hands-on experiences to refine and generalize their understanding of length and weight. Related to the skills of sorting and classifying, students compare and describe pairs of objects according to these measurable attributes. In kindergarten the focus is on directly comparing a common attribute of two objects and describing the difference. Students learn that, for greater precision, when comparing length, the ends of objects need to line up and when comparing weights on a balance scale, the pans on the scale need to be even before beginning to compare or measure. They learn to use more precise language when comparing and describing the measurable attributes of objects. For instance, when describing one object as “bigger” or “smaller” than another object, they learn to describe the way in what an object is “bigger”: it’s taller, shorter, heavier, etc.
Although specific measurement lessons in kindergarten are short, students need to engage in numerous measurement activities over time that provide experiences leading to understanding and the development of foundational measurement skills. These experiences prepare students for using nonstandard units to measure objects indirectly in first grade.
