Dear Family, your Operation Maths guide to Weight

Dear Family, your Operation Maths guide to Weight

Dear Family, listed below are some practical suggestions as to how you might support your children’s understanding of the maths topic of weight. Also below, are a series of links to digital resources that will help both the children, and you, learn more about weight. The digital resources are organised according to approximate class level.

Practical Suggestions for all Children

• In school, the children are enabled to compare, estimate and measure weight. You can reinforce this at home by asking the children to use their outstretched hands to compare and estimate the heavier/lighter of any two items, from anywhere around the house. Do they realise that size is not always indicative of weight? i.e. a bigger item (e.g. beach ball) may be lighter than a smaller item (e.g. a book).

• The children can then check their estimate by using a handmade balance, assembled quickly from a clothes hanger and two identical bags.
• Draw their attention to weight labels on food packaging, especially kg for kilograms and g for grams. Even children who may not yet know that there are 1,000g in a kg, can examine labels and can use their number knowledge to identify the heavier/lighter item. If the food item does not have a weight label, does it have a label for a different unit of measurement and why is this? (e.g. ml or l for capacity).
• Is it good value? Keep a close eye on the weight of various food items when shopping (whether it be in the shops or online): while you’d expect that a 4kg bag of potatoes would be twice the price, or cheaper even, than a 2kg bag of the same potatoes, you would not expect it to be dearer – yet that can sometimes be the case! So involve the children in checking the weight of bags and packages to make sure that you’re getting the best value for your money!
• Involve your child in weighing and measuring when cooking and baking. Show them your kitchen/digital scales (if you have any); demonstrate how it works and get the children to try the scales out for themselves. If using recipes, ask the children to calculate how much of each ingredient would be required to make half, double, etc., of the amount/dish.
• Do you have any other weighing scales at home? Bathroom scales, luggage scales etc? Allow the children to explore how they work and use them to measure the weight of the bags used by the household: school bags, handbags, rucksacks etc.
• Enlist the help of older siblings if available. As they explain and support the younger members of the family, they will also be developing and consolidating their own knowledge and skills, especially communicating mathematically.
• Draw the children’s attention to any other situation where weight needs to be considered: weight requirements for children’s car seats, weight restrictions on baggage with airlines, weight restrictions when posting letters and parcels, etc.

Digital Resources for Infants

Homemade balance: This video shows how you can easily set up a balance at home using a hanger and two bags.

 

Heavy and Light with Ernie & Bert: The Sesame Street favourites explore heavy and light.

 

Number Jacks: Getting heavy

 

Comparing heavy and light objects: A lesson from Matholia

 

Measuring Mass (weight) using blocks: A lesson from Matholia. You could do this activity at home using the homemade balance above.

Bunny Balance: Add bunnies to the see saw to make it balance or to make either side heavier or lighter (Not tablet friendly – requires Adobe Flash Player).

Moving Day: Fill the moving day truck, first with the lighter items, then the medium items and finally the heavier items. (Not tablet friendly – requires Adobe Flash Player).

Light and heavy: a selection of games from ixl.com. You can do a number of free quizzes each day without having a subscription.

 

Digital Resources for First and Second Classes

Measure Mass (weight) in kilograms: video from Matholia explaining how to compare the weight of items to 1kg using a balance (you could try this at home using the homemade balance idea in the infant section above).

Using a scale to measure kilograms: A video lesson from Matholia

 

Mostly Postie: Lift the items onto the scales and type in the weight. Recommended: Stick to kg and half kg option.

 

Heavy or Light: Click on each item to weigh it. Then select the heavier or lighter item.

 

Happy Camel:  a puzzle game where you must find out where the toy is hidden.

 

Light and heavy: a selection of games from ixl.com. You can do a number of free quizzes each day without having a subscription.

Digital Resources for Third to Sixth Classes

Metric Mass (weight): Background information on weight (mass) and grams, kilograms and tonnes as the main metric units. At the end of the page there is a link to a Weighing Activity , explaining how you could do some weighing activities at home.

Converting grams to kilograms and grams: A video lesson from Matholia

 

Mostly Postie: Lift the items onto the scales and type in the weight. Recommendation: work through the given options in order.

 

Coconut Ordering Game: Select Mass to order amounts of kg and g

 

Metric measures of Mass: (ie kg and g) a selection of games from ixl.com. You can do a number of free quizzes each day without having a subscription.

 

Odlum’s Baking with Kids: What better way to develop and perfect your weighing skills! 

 

Comparing and converting metric units: Practice games incorporating metric units of weight, capacity and length.

 

Weight Quiz: (for 6th class) Multiple choice quiz 

9 Weights: A challenging, interactive puzzle from nrich.org