Center Focus

Broken Ruler

  1. You will need to make "broken rulers" out of cardboard or tag board for this activity.
  2. Students may be good at measuring objects using regular rulers, where they can start with zero, but using broken rulers requires them to do more arithmetic.
  3. Have a set of objects that your kids will need to measure. You may want to make a data sheet, where they may record their results.
  4. After all of your kids have a chance to go to this center, have a discussion with them about how they used the broken rulers to measure. They should be able to tell you about the methods they used.