Hat Day

Objective:
The students will measure the circumference of their heads and compare the measurement to other objects in the classroom.

Materials

• Cloth measuring tapes or pieces of string and straight rulers
• My Head Worksheet
• A variety of spherical objects placed around the room.  For example, balls, pieces of fruit, a globe, etc.  (Try and have some objects bigger than their heads and some objects smaller.)

Procedure

1. Ask the students how they could measure their heads to be fitted for a new hat.  Have a discussion on the words circumference and sphere.  Demonstrate how to measure their heads using either the cloth measuring tapes or the string and rulers.
2. Pass out the My Head Worksheet and put the students in pairs.  Have them help each other in measuring the circumference of their heads.
3. Once they have a measurement, or a piece of string cut to the size of their heads, have them complete the worksheet.  This will be done by having them locate the other spherical objects that have been placed around the room and measuring those objects.
4. Older students may be challenged to figure how much bigger or smaller the objects are than their heads.

Other Lesson Ideas

1. Make a real graph for the hats brought in to school.  Have the students decide which features they will use to graph the hats.  For example, by color, type of hat, size of hat, etc.
2. Read the book, "Caps for Sale" by Esphyr Slobodkina.  Have the students create their own patterns by coloring different caps.  They may also make a stack of different colored caps and write math problems to accompany their stacks.  For example 3 red caps + 2 blue caps + 3 green caps = 8 caps.