Math Lesson Takes Third Graders on an Animal Safari

As part of the third grade math curriculum, students learn about measurements, both the metric system and the Imperial system, which is used here in the United States. This week, students worked with inches, feet, yards, and miles, and got taken on an animal safari. Working in pairs, students measured each other to determine how many inches tall they each are and then converted those numbers into feet and inches. After doing that, students were given a long piece of ribbon, showing the height of one of a number of animals: Asian elephant, turkey, boa constrictor, T-rex, and sea otter, among others. “Yes! I’m taller than a turkey!” exclaimed a third grader. “I never knew I was taller than you are,” exclaimed another to her partner.

 

“We aim to bring in real-life examples in math whenever we can,” says teacher Lori Galante. “And kids love measuring and imagining the size of animals in our ‘Animal Safari.’” MORE PHOTOS