Measuring Sandcastles!

In the book Super Sandcastle Saturday there are so many different ways to measure Juan, Sarah and Laura sandcastles! Let's see who has the tallest and longest castle!

One sunny afternoon, three friends who are enjoying a day at the beach decide to enter a sand castle contest to see who can build the tallest sand castle and the longest wall. Throughout the competition the friends measure each other’s sand castles to see who is winning by measuring with their feet, shovels and spoons. At the end of the day they think they have figured out the winner, but when the lifeguard measures they realize they are all wrong. This is because, as one friend explains, that people’s shovels and spoons can all vary, but when using a ruler or measuring stick, “an inch will always be an inch”. This book explores both standard and non-standard measurements.

"Sarah wanted to win the prize for the tallest tower. She starting building up, up, up. But Juan's tower was getting tall too.

"I'll bet my tower is taller than yours," said Juan. "Let's use our shovels to measure them."

Supporting Children's Learning about Measurement

This story is a good way to introduce students to the differences between non-standard measurement and standard measurement. When using non-standard measurement because the unit size may vary one object may have a different number of units, if measured with a non-standard object each time, however if using a standard measurement, the measurement will be the same each time. In an activity following reading the story, students can measure the length of the classroom, using their feet. This will result in students each getting a different answer, (their feet are all different lengths) there can be a further discussion on why this occurs and a follow up question can be asked that if we used another non-standard manipulative would the number of units still stay the same? Lastly, to look at the the standard measurement aspect of the book the students can measure the room using a meter stick and compare their results to non-standard measurement results. The children will be able to develop a further understanding of non-standard and standard measurement, and reflect on why the length of something may differ if we measure it in more than one way.