Superhero Measuring with Mazes

Need to practice some math skills?  Try this Superhero Measuring with Mazes activity.

What you will need:

• Superhero Mazes
• Blocks or yarn to measure with (something with different lengths and can fit inside maze lines)
• Pencil
• Ruler

Directions:
1. First go ahead and do the maze with a pencil.

2. Trace your lines through the maze with blocks so one block fits in the lines or if you need to, multiple blocks.  If you are using yarn, you can either bend it at the turns or cut it long enough to fit each length before the turn. Continue until you get to the end.

3. Guess how long (feet, inches, cm) your blocks or yarn will measure when you put it in one straight line.  Then measure it.  With the blocks, we preferred to measure a foot at a time.  We ended up using inches too instead of centimeters even though our blocks are great for cm.  We wanted to practice our measuring using the lines between the whole numbers. I gave my kiddos the tip of starting with the bigger pieces then when the bigger pieces made it too long (past the ruler), try switching it with smaller pieces.  It always worked out for us that way but if not, you can teach them how to hold a spot and continuing by moving the ruler.

4. Write the total length on the back of your maze.  Then count how many pieces you used.  Write it on the back.

5. When everyone is done, have each tell how many pieces they used first.  Guess whose total length will be the longest based on what you know now.  Then have everyone tell their total length.  In our case, the person with the shortest length also had the most pieces.  The person with longest length had the least amount of pieces.  We talked about how you can't just tell length by the amount of pieces you use.

6. I also showed everyone how to write the lengths in 3 different ways- fully written out, abbreviations, and short form.  There isn't always one way to do something!  You can prove this further by switching mazes and having the next person trace the maze with blocks and see how many they use.  Is it the same as the person before?  Is it okay if its not?  What did you do differently than the person before?