Lesson 5

Measure with Connecting Cubes

Warm-up: Notice and Wonder: Measure a Pencil (10 minutes)

Narrative

The purpose of this warm-up is for students to compare lengths of objects and notice when they are longer, shorter, or equal to each other in length. While students may notice and wonder many things about these images, comparing the length is an important discussion point.

Launch

  • Groups of 2
  • Display the image.
  • “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”
  • 1 minute: quiet think time

Activity

  • “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
  • 1 minute: partner discussion
  • Share and record responses.

Student Facing

What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
3 objects. Yellow tower, 6 connecting cubes. Purple tower, 9 connecting cubes. Pencil, same length as purple tower.

Student Response

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Activity Synthesis

  • “How can you describe the length of the pencil?” (The pencil is longer than the yellow cubes. The pencil is the same length as the purple cubes.)

Activity 1: Lengths of Creepy, Crawly Things (15 minutes)

Narrative

The purpose of this activity is for students to create a connecting cube tower that is the same length as a given image. In the activity synthesis, students transition from describing the length of an object by comparing it to another object ("The earthworm is the same length as a tower of 8 cubes.") to describing the length of an object as a measurement ("The earthworm is 8 cubes long.").

Required Materials

Materials to Gather

Materials to Copy

  • Lengths of Creepy, Crawly Things

Launch

  • Groups of 2
  • Give each student connecting cubes and a copy of the blackline master.

Activity

  • “We just saw a picture that showed a pencil that was the same length as the purple tower. Use connecting cubes to build a tower that is the same length as each creepy, crawly thing.”
  • 10 minutes: partner work time
  • Monitor for students who carefully line up the cubes with the endpoints of the images.

Student Response

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Activity Synthesis

  • Invite previously identified students to share.
  • Display the image of the caterpillar.
  • “How did you measure the caterpillar?” (I lined the first cube up with the end of the caterpillar. Then I added cubes until I got all the way to the other end of the caterpillar.)
  • “Since the tower of 4 cubes is the same length as the caterpillar and each cube has the same length, we can say the caterpillar is 4 cubes long.”
  • For each animal, invite students to say, “The ______ is ___ cubes long.”

Activity 2: Measure More Creepy, Crawly Things (10 minutes)

Narrative

The purpose of this activity is for students to measure the length of images using connecting cubes. Although students have compared the lengths of objects in previous activities, length is defined in this activity since it is the first time students measure and describe the length of objects as a number of same-size length units. Students determine how many connecting cube sides long each image is. They make statements such as “The grasshopper is five cubes long.” Some students may disagree on how to measure with their partner based on where they start and end the measurement, which is the focus of the activity synthesis. When students disagree with each other and explain how they decided to measure each image, they critique the reasoning of others (MP3).

MLR8 Discussion Supports. During partner work, invite students to take turns sharing their responses. Ask students to restate what they heard using precise mathematical language and their own words. Display the sentence frame: “I heard you say . . .” Original speakers can agree or clarify for their partner.
Advances: Listening, Speaking
Engagement: Provide Access by Recruiting Interest. Synthesis: Invite students to generate a list of additional examples of objects that can be measured with connecting cubes.
Supports accessibility for: Conceptual Processing, Visual-Spatial Processing

Required Materials

Materials to Gather

Materials to Copy

  • More Creepy, Crawly Things

Launch

  • Groups of 2
  • Give each student connecting cubes and a copy of the blackline master.
  • “In the previous activity, we found the length of animals using connecting cubes. Length is the measure of how long an object is in same-size units without gaps or overlaps.”

Activity

  • “Use connecting cubes to find the length of more creepy, crawly things. First, measure on your own. Then compare your thinking with your partner. If you and your partner don’t agree on the length, work together to come to an agreement. Complete each statement with the number that makes it true.”
  • 6–8 minutes: partner work time
  • As students work, consider asking:
    • “How long is the _____? How do you know?”

Student Response

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Activity Synthesis

  • Display answers.
  • “Check your measurements with these. Did you find the same measurements of length?”
  • Consider asking:
    • “If you found the same measurements, what did you and your partner do to make sure you found the right measurement of the length?”
    • “If you found a different measurement, what do you think happened when you measured?”

Activity 3: Centers: Choice Time (15 minutes)

Narrative

The purpose of this activity is for students to choose from activities that offer practice adding two-digit numbers within 100. Students choose from any stage of previously introduced centers.

  • How Close?
  • Target Numbers
  • Five in a Row

Required Materials

Materials to Gather

Required Preparation

  • Gather materials from:
    • How Close? Stages 1–3
    • Target Numbers, Stages 1–3
    • Five in a Row, Stages 1–6

Launch

  • Groups of 2
  • “Now you are going to choose from centers we have already learned.”
  • Display the center choices in the student book.
  • “Think about what you would like to do.”
  • 30 seconds: quiet think time

Activity

  • Invite students to work at the center of their choice.
  • 10 minutes: center work time

Student Facing

Choose a center.

How Close?

Center. How Close.

Target Numbers

Center. Target Numbers.

Five in a Row

Center activity. Five in a row.

Activity Synthesis

  • “Diego and Elena are playing How Close. Diego has a sum of 91. Elena has a sum of 89. Who gets a point for being closer to 100? How do you know?”

Lesson Synthesis

Lesson Synthesis

Display an item from the classroom with connecting cubes lined up from endpoint to endpoint or use the image from the warm-up.

“Today we measured length with connecting cubes. What is the length of the pencil? How do you know?” (It is 6 cubes long. I know because the cubes are lined up with the top of the pencil and go to the end of the pencil and I counted 6 cubes.)

Display the same item from the classroom, using a connecting cube tower with extra cubes on each end of the item. For example:

Measure an object. 10 connecting cubes above a rectangle.  Rectangle begins at the second cube and ends after the seventh cube.

“What is the length of the rectangle? How do you know?” (It is 6 cubes long. There are extra cubes before it and after it, but those aren’t counted because they are not starting or ending on the rectangle.)

As needed, “Even though there are some extra cubes before and after the rectangle, we can still measure the length by counting the cube that begins where the rectangle begins. We can stop counting when we get to the end of the rectangle.”

Cool-down: Unit 6, Section B Checkpoint (0 minutes)

Cool-Down

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