As our introduction activity for measurement, students explored specific units of measure.

We read a story, called “A Bed for the Queen,” where the king uses his big feet to measure the bed size, but, though the apprentice makes the bed to the king’s specifications, the apprentice uses his little feet as the measurement tool, so the bed it much too small for the queen. Using four different sizes of “feet,” the students made four beds that were three feet wide and six feet long. Although they all made their beds to the same specifications, all four beds were different sizes. The students deduced that knowing what size the “foot” needs to be is important, thus they discovered the importance of standard measurement.