Designing a Monster Outfit

Preservice teachers were given creature monsters to use to learn about metrics. They learned some basics about estimation such as the use of the width of a pinky nail to measure one centime... See More

Preservice teachers were given creature monsters to use to learn about metrics. They learned some basics about estimation such as the use of the width of a pinky nail to measure one centimeter. After that they had to design clothing for their creature monsters for a fashion show. They had to provide an invoice for the clothing which specified what measurements were needed for their designs. A rubric is provided to assess the activity. This activity can be easily modified for each grade level and it seems like a great deal of fun while learning or reviewing some basic tips about measurement.

An original way to teach measurement

This lesson involves a story about dressing monsters and using measurement to create clothing the correct size for each. While it describes a pre-service teacher activity, this could easily ... See More

This lesson involves a story about dressing monsters and using measurement to create clothing the correct size for each. While it describes a pre-service teacher activity, this could easily be adapted (and the authors describe several ways it was adapted) for a variety of elementary grade levels. It could even be adapted for use in the middle school as a review activity. It is so much easier to teach metric system with a goal in mind and this seems to be engaging! While I haven't done this specific activity, it is not a lot different from some I have taught.