Chapter

Measuring Length
6

Let Us Observe

1. Look at the picture. What are the students measuring? Put a tick
mark () if you find it being measured.
a) Length c) Weight e) Breadth
b) Height d) Depth f) Temperature
2. What is being used to measure the height? What other tools can be
used to measure height?
3. Recall in Grade 3 you studied that lengths are measured in
metres. Check and fill in the blanks whether the following are
correct/incorrect for your classroom.
a) The height of most of the students in my grade is more than a
metre. _______________
b) The length of my arm is less than a metre. _______________
c) The height of the door of the grade is less than a metre. __________
d) The breadth of the blackboard is more than a metre.___________

Note for Teachers: The words tall, wide, short and long are used in daily life. Discuss
with students that height, width, depth, breadth all refer to length measurement.
These words are used depending on different situations and orientation. At this point
students only need to understand that all these words denote length.

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 Measuring is Fun

Remember we made,
1 metre (m),
half metre ( 1
2
m), and
quarter metre ( 1
4 m) ropes. Let us make them again.

1 m

1 m 1 m
2 2

1 m 1 m 1 m 1 m
4 4 4 4

Do you notice 1 m = 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 m + 2 m and 1 m = 4 m + 4 + 4 m + 4 m
and 1 1 1
2 m = 4 m + 4 m.

Let Us Do

Use your ropes to carry out the following activities. You can use a
combination of ropes, if needed.

1. Walk, Jump, and Crawl on 1, 5 and 10 m line

Draw lines of 1 m, 5 m, and 10 m on the floor of the classroom or outside
in the playground.
How will you make these lines? Think and share with your friends.
Walk, jump, and crawl on the lines.

Note for Teachers: Making the lines by repeatedly using metre rope and walking,
jumping and crawling on the lines will help students develop an estimate of how big
5 m and 10 m is. They will be able to use this experience to estimate and compare
other lengths in their surroundings.

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 2. Long Jump
Each child can participate in a long jump competition. How far have your
friends jumped? Measure as accurately as possible using a combination of
ropes. Who jumped the longest distance?
W ho h
Fill the following table. jumpe s
a
d th
shor te e
st?

Name of the Actual

Estimated length of the jump
student measurement
Less than 1 m 1m More than
1m

3. Estimate how long and broad is your classroom. Measure and check.

Note for Teachers: Allow children to measure 100 m using their footstpes and note
how many footsteps fit in 100 m. This can be used for further estimations.

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 Let Us Think: Guess the Length

Length about 30 metres

I can’t clean my
neck!

3m

Length about 6 metres

4m

Look at the pictures carefully and answer the questions.

1. What is the length of one bus in metres? What is the length of one
cricket bat in metres?
2. How many buses would be equal to the length of two blue whales?
3. How many cricket bats will be needed to measure one whale?
4. If two ostriches stand one above another, their height will be equal
to the height of ______________.
5. How many crocodiles will be equal to the length of a blue whale?

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 Measuring Small Things

Can you think how to measure a small thing

like an eraser or a rice grain?
1 cm
We need a smaller unit to measure such small items. Observe a standard
metre scale. You can see the scale is divided into 100 equal parts.
The length of each one of these parts has a special name called
Centimetre (cm).

Let Us Observe

Chutki wants to keep track of the increase

in height of her plant.
Compare the metre rope with the measuring tape
used by a tailor. Is the length of both the same or
different?
Observe the measuring tape carefully. What do you notice?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

This is one centimetre. 1 cm 1 cm

Discuss how these marks help us measure clearly.

The length of each red

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 bar is 1 cm.
The red bar is repeated 10 times to make 10 cm. When we repeat the
length of the red bar 100 times, we will get 1 metre scale/tape.
1 metre (m) = 100 centimetre (cm)
1 m = _____ cm, 1 m = _____ cm
2 4
Now use the measuring tape/scale to see how tall your plants grow
every week.
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 Let Us Do

1. Measure each object using a scale.

————— cm

————— cm

————— cm

————— cm

Write the names of the objects in increasing order of length.

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 2. Estimate the lengths of the following and compare your responses
with your friends, in the grade . Write some examples of things that
can be lesser than or equal to 1 cm in length. Verify by measuring.

Length of Equal to More than Less than Actual

items 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm measurement
A fingernail

An eraser

An ant
A grain of
wheat
A rajma seed

3. Take three toy cars and find out how far each one can
go. You can use a small wooden ramp, or you might
like to make a ramp using any material that you have.

Measure the distance each of your cars travels using measuring tape
and write the answers in cm.

Car Distance from the ramp Rank

Car 1 _______ cm
Car 2 _______ cm
Car 3 _______ cm

Note for Teachers: Get a one metre measuring scale or measuring tape for the
students to observe. Make students observe the marks and the numbers written
on the tape. Discuss what 100 denotes on the tape. Students often assume it is the
number of marks on the tape. Highlight that the distance between two marks is
one centimetre (1 cm) and one metre is divided into 100 such 1 cm distances. After
students have made such observations, children can use the measuring tape/scale
to measure small lengths.

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 4. Find the longest and the shortest route in this treasure hunt. You
can go around the obstacles but cannot jump over them. You can
only walk on the yellow tiles and not on the grass. Can you find the
length of your route in centimetres? Look for the 1 cm clue in the
map.
1cm
1cm

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 10
5. Trace your hand on a piece of paper. Measure it

9
using the scale.

8
7
6
Length of my hand = ________ cm

5
4
3
2
1
0
6. Use your hand to estimate the measurement of any object. Convert
into centimetres. Verify using the scale.
Number of Estimate using Actual measure
Object
hands hand using the cm scale
1. Length of my
_______ cm _______ cm
textbook
2. Height of my
_______ cm _______ cm
chair

3. Width of my desk _______ cm _______ cm

4. Height of a
_______ cm _______ cm
flowerpot

7. Ashwin’s scale is broken. Can you help him to measure using this
scale?

________ cm ________ cm
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 8. Fill the blanks on the number line below appropriately.

0cm 10cm 20cm 30cm 40cm cm 60cm 70cm 80cm 90cm 100cm
25cm cm

m 3 m
0m 1 m 4 1m
2

9. The length of a board is 2 metres. Sonu has a decorative border

sticker which is 20 cm long. How many such stickers are needed to
cover the length of the board completely?

20cm

0m 1m 2m

Metre and Centimetres

Ramu and Shamu are using a measuring tape to

measure their own height.
Ramu reads his height from the tape as 120 cm and
Shamu reads it as 1 m 20 cm.
Who is correct?

Pinki says both are correct and draws this.

100 cm 20 cm

1m 20 cm

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 Let Us Do

1. The Village Sarpanch got the depth of some wells in his village
measured by two different people.
a) Fill the blanks such that the depths are the same.

i) 2 m = 200 cm

ii) __ m = 400 cm

iii) 6 m = ____cm

iv) __ m = 800m

b) Identify the wells with the same depth and match them.

1 m 40 cm 550 cm

4 m 60 cm 140 cm

2 m 30 cm 460 cm

5 m 50 cm 230 cm

Let Us Explore

Activity: Students will measure their height using a measuring tape.

Make a table in your notebook and complete it.

Name of the Student Height in cm Height in m

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 Answer the following questions.
1. Height of the tallest child is _____.
2. Height of the shortest child is _____.
3. Number of children who are more than 1 m tall _____.
4. Number of children who are shorter than 1 m _____.

Fencing and Lacing The length of the

boundary of an object
or shape is called
Bhola is making a boundary with bricks for his perimeter.
vegetable garden. Colour the bricks on the boundary.
How many bricks will he need to make the boundary?

Note for Teachers: Help children understand that perimeter is the length of the
boundary of a closed figure that can be measured using various non-formal units,
such as footsteps, thumbprints, and block printing. Such measures are generally
approximate but measuring using formal units with a scale or measuring tape would
be more accurate.

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 Let Us Do

1. Bhola made the boundary of his gardens in the following ways.

Circle the boundary that is longest.

2. Let us find the perimeter of some shapes using the dot grid. One is
done for you.

1 cm 1 cm

1 cm 1 cm
1 cm
10 cm
1 cm 1 cm

1 cm 1 cm 1 cm

a) Colour the boundary with the longest length in blue.

b) Colour the boundary with the shortest length in green.
c) Tick the shapes with the same length.

Note for Teachers: Help children see the perimeter as length or distance around a
shape. Let them understand how dot grids of 1 cm help measure perimeter.

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 3. Do any of the following shapes have the same perimeter? Tick them.

A) B) C)
1 cm

D) E) F)

4. Tick the garden with the minimum perimeter.

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 5. Estimate and measure the perimeters of shapes around you using
a scale and write them in the space given below.

Estimated perimeter in Actual measure in

S. No. Object
cm/m cm/m

1. Desk

2. Blackboard

3. Classroom floor

4.

5.

6.

6. Draw three different shapes with perimeter of 20 cm.

1 cm

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