Activity: Personal Measures

Here is a clever thing you can do:

Measure Yourself!

Measure how wide your hand is, how long your arm is, the width of your fingernails and more!

Then, as you go around, you can measure other things using your body.

The Activity

You will need:

Measure using millimeters (mm) or inches (in). Try to do both if you can.

		mm	inches
	1 large step
1 pace (= 2 normal steps)
	your height
end of thumb
	across 4 fingers together
handspan (finger to thumb)
	arm to opposite shoulder
fingernail width
	length of foot
	lengthof forearm (elbow to wrist)
between two biggest knuckles
	nose to outstretched hand

Put a copy of this on your wall!

If you are still growing, remember to redo this in a year or two.

Choose 4 of those measures to be your "favorites", the ones you find easiest to remember. Include at least a small, a medium and a large one.

Now you get to use them!

Measure each of the following, first using your "Personal Measures", then using a ruler or tape measure to see how close you get!

Item	Estimate using a Personal Measure	Actual using a ruler or tape measure
Paperclip (width)	3 fingernails = 30mm	32 mm
Teaspoon (length)
Fork (length)
Pencil (length)
Chair seat (height)
Chair back (height)
Table (width)
Table (length)
Table (height)
Door (width)
Door (height)
Car (width)
Car (length)
Car (height)
Hallway (width)
Hallway (length)
Hallway (height)

You can also use your hands to measure volume, like this:

Do this measurement in the sink.

When you have filled your hand (or hands)
pour the contents into a measuring cup.

Do this (say) 5 times, see how much is in the cup,
then divide by 5 for how much your hand holds.

You can also try this using rice:

Quantity
I got 40 ml for one handful of rice