The most common mistake
Children often start measuring from the end of the ruler, or from 1. On the printed-ruler sheets every object starts exactly at zero; on the “use your own” sheets they have to line it up themselves.
Real size
Every sheet is drawn to scale, so the objects are as long on paper as their measurements say. That makes it easy to check an answer with a real ruler.
Curriculum links in England
- Year 1Pupils compare, describe and measure lengths and heights, using words such as longer, shorter, double and half.
- Year 2Children choose standard units, metres and centimetres, and measure to the nearest unit with a ruler.
- Year 3Lengths are measured, compared, added and subtracted in metres, centimetres and millimetres.
- Year 5Pupils learn rough equivalences between metric units and common imperial units such as inches.
England teaches length in metric units, so set the maker to centimetres for Key Stage 1. Inches appear in the curriculum only in Year 5, as approximate conversions (an inch is roughly 2.5 cm), which makes one inches sheet and one centimetres sheet of the same objects a neat Year 5 activity.
In Year 1 many classes measure with cubes or hand spans before rulers, so the printed-ruler sheets suit the end of Year 1 and Year 2. The objects measure in whole centimetres, which matches Year 2; millimetres come in Year 3.
Summarised in our own words from the National Curriculum in England: mathematics programmes of study (DfE).
