Stuffed Animal Measurement Fair

After seeing this post on Lesson Plan S.O.S, The Meek Moose and I cooked up a Stuffed Animal Measurement Day of insanity fun. In the post, she promises to reveal more later but I couldn't wait for later. So I created this packet now available on TPT:

A few days before the event, I invited my kids to bring a stuffed animal to school for a Measurement Fair. There were a few rules I set in place due to my own sanity that you may or may not want to use.

Rule #1 - It has to be able to fit in your backpack. No amusement park-sized animals.
Rule #2 - It has to be a quiet animal. No tempting buttons to push that make your animal say "MEOW" in the middle of a spelling test.

I could tell that they were all mentally trying to figure out how to stuff the biggest animal they own into their backpacks, so I told them there would be awards for all different kinds of animals, not just the biggest ones.

I set up seven different stations - Area, Perimeter, Weight, Width, Length, Time, and Volume. At each station was a poster with directions, and a sentence stem to help kids discuss their results using the correct language. They recorded their results on their own recording sheet and on a class recording sheet at each station.

Here students are measuring the perimeter of their animals with toothpicks.

Volume Station

In the packet on TPT, there are two different options for weight. You could use a balance scale to compare the weights of two animals, or if you have one, use a spring scale to measure the weight of the animal in ounces. I was worried about the animals being too big for a balance scale, so the Meekster suggested using a yard or meterstick with two plastic bags at the end. They put one animal in each bag, and then try to balance the stick on their finger at the middle of the stick to see which animal weighs more. I used a meter stick and put a piece of bright pink tape at the 50 centimeters mark to make sure they were holding in the center. I was all prepared to do this when Meekster found a spring scale in her box 'o measurement, so I made a chart for using that tool as well.

Using a spring scale

The kids had a BLAST! At the end of the fair, I collected the class recording sheets from each station and used those to select two winners for each measurement activity. I decided each kid could only win one award so I tweaked the results a bit to spread the wealth. That's up to you. Here are a few examples of the awards:

My camera died after only a few shots (and my phone was being held hostage by the Geek Squad at Best Buy), so I didn't get very many pictures. But Meekling is doing this activity on Monday so maybe she will get some good shots for you. Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Stay Fabulous!