Measuring in the kitchen and the garden
Measurement is one of the most practical parts of mathematics, and one of the easiest to practise at home. Cooking, gardening, building and even getting dressed are full of lengths, weights, amounts and times. Children who have measured real things with their hands and eyes understand what a centimetre or a litre actually is, and that understanding makes the later, more abstract work with units far easier. This article describes the stages of learning to measure, with ideas for the kitchen and the garden.
Written for children aged 5 to 9.
The big idea: measuring is comparing
Underneath every kind of measurement is the same idea: to measure something, you compare it with a unit of the same kind. Length is compared with a length, weight with a weight, capacity (how much a container holds) with another capacity. The number you get tells you how many units fit.
Children arrive at this idea through a typical sequence:
- Direct comparison. Which is longer? Which is heavier? Hold two objects side by side or in each hand.
- Indirect comparison. Which is taller, the door or the bookcase? You cannot put them side by side, so you use a third thing, such as a piece of string, to compare.
- Non-standard units. Measuring with hand-spans, footsteps, paperclips or cubes.
- Standard units. Rulers, scales, measuring jugs: centimetres, grams, litres.
Each stage matters. Skipping straight to the ruler leaves many children able to read numbers off a scale without any feel for what they mean.
Length
Comparing. In the garden, ask: "Which stick is longer?" Lay the sticks side by side with one end level. Children quickly learn that to compare lengths fairly, they must start from the same point, which is a surprisingly important idea.
Non-standard units. "How many of your footsteps is it from the door to the gate?" "How many hand-spans wide is the table?" Children discover two valuable things: that the number depends on the unit (a big hand gives a smaller number than a small one), and that when you compare measurements, you need to use the same unit. This is the true reason standard units were invented.
Rulers and tape measures. When your child is ready, introduce a ruler. Take care to show that measuring starts at the zero mark, which on some rulers sits a little in from the edge, not at the 1, and that each unit is the space between marks, not the marks themselves. Measure plants, shoes, a pet, the height of a growing sunflower and chart it each week.
Estimating. Before measuring, ask "How long do you think it is?" Estimation builds a feel for the size of units. Keep a few reference points handy: a centimetre is about the width of a fingertip; a metre is about one big step.
Weight (mass)
Heavy and light. Balance two objects, one in each hand, and decide which is heavier. A simple balance made from a coat hanger with two cups hanging from the ends gives a visible answer.
Non-standard. How many marbles balance this apple? How many apples balance this melon? Children begin to see weight as something that can be measured and added.
Kitchen scales. Use real scales for baking. "The recipe says 200 grams of flour. Watch the numbers go up as we pour." Digital scales are fine, but a dial scale shows a pointer moving, which makes the idea of "more" very visible. Discuss that grams are small (a paper clip is about a gram) and kilograms are large (a bag of sugar is a kilogram).
Surprises. A big balloon is light; a small stone is heavy. Weighing things that surprise children teaches that size and weight are different ideas.
Capacity (volume)
Pouring games. Use cups and a bucket of water or dry rice. "How many cups fill this jug?" Children quickly discover that tall, thin containers can hold the same as short, wide ones, which is another form of conservation (like conservation of number).
Measuring jugs and spoons. Cooking is the perfect setting. A recipe asks for 250 millilitres of milk, or 2 teaspoons of vanilla. Reading the marks on a jug, and pouring up to the line, is real measurement practice. Talk about a litre as "a big carton of milk" and a teaspoon as about 5 millilitres.
Fractions in the kitchen. A half cup, a quarter cup, a third of a teaspoon: measuring cups are fraction tools, and cooking makes the idea of equal parts natural. "What if we want to double the recipe?" brings in multiplication and doubling.
Time and temperature
A kitchen timer is a measuring instrument. "The cake needs 25 minutes. When should we start checking?" Reading a thermometer (outdoor or oven) introduces another scale, and the garden gives practice: "What's the temperature this morning? Is it warmer than yesterday?"
Ideas for the kitchen
- Bake together. Measuring ingredients is a rich mix of counting, fractions, weight and capacity.
- Make the biggest and smallest. "Can you find a cup that holds more than this one?"
- Sort by size. Lining up spoons or pans from smallest to largest practises ordering.
- Compare containers. Before pouring, ask for a prediction: "Which will hold more?" Then test it.
Ideas for the garden
- Plant growth chart. Measure a seedling each week, record the numbers, and look for patterns. This is mathematics and science together.
- Garden path. How long is the path in footsteps? In metres? What's the difference?
- Rain gauge. A straight-sided jar left outdoors gives a simple measure of rainfall, with centimetres marked on the side.
- Seed packets. "Plant these 10 centimetres apart" is a real-world instruction needing a ruler.
- Sharing the harvest. Weighing the tomatoes picked each week brings in grams and kilograms.
Language and conversations
Use words such as longer, shorter, taller, heavier, lighter, more, less, full, empty, half full. Rich language helps children think clearly about measurement. Ask "How do you know?" and "What would happen if we used a different unit?" A conversation of a few minutes at the sink or in the flower bed is often more useful than an hour of worksheets.
Common stumbling blocks
Not starting at zero. Children put the object at the 1 mark and read off the end number. Practise lining up objects at the zero end, and counting units not marks.
Mixing units. "It's 3 long." Three what? Always ask for the unit.
Gaps and overlaps. When measuring with non-standard units (say, cubes), children may leave gaps or overlap. Talk about why units must touch end to end without a gap.
Believing that bigger means heavier. Provide surprises to test this idea.
With plenty of hands-on measuring, your child will gradually build a feel for the world's quantities. When a recipe says "250 grams" or a garden bed is "two metres long", these will be real, familiar sizes rather than words on a page.
Try it in the app
Practise this at the screen too: Measuring tools, Length in centimetres, Choose a tool and unit. You may also like our articles on reading the analogue clock and shapes and position.