Activities

1. Would you use millimeters, centimeters, meters, or kilometers to measure the following objects?

1. Length of a pencil
2. Length of a classroom
3. Height of a house
4. Distance between Washington, D.C. and California
5. Height of an elephant

2. What force pulls objects toward Earth?

3. What is friction?

4. In each pair, identify which amount is greater.
   1. 1cm or 1m
   2. 1mL or 1L
   3. 5kg or 5g

5. Throw a ball into the air.  Write one or two sentences to describe the motion of the ball from the time it leaves your hands until you catch it.  Explain why you think the ball travels this way.

6. Predict what would happen if you rolled a ball down a hill.  Explain why you think the ball travels this way.

7. Estimate the following: 

1. The length of a crayon

1m                   9cm                 15mm

2. The mass of a car

2,000kg           800g                19kg

3. The volume of a swimming pool

500mL             3L                    350,000L

8. Why do you think a hockey puck moves much faster around an ice rink than it does in the street? 

9. Below is a map of a school.  Students in Mrs. Miller’s class want to find out how far they need to walk through the hallway to get from the door of their classroom to the door of the principal’s office.  The doors are marked with black boxes.  Explain how you would measure this distance.

Answer Key/Rubric

1. Answers as follows:

1. Centimeters
2. Meters
3. Meters
4. Kilometers
5. Meters

2. Gravity

3. Friction is the force created when two objects rub together; slows down the motion of an object

4. Answers as follows:
   a. 1m
   b. 1L
   c. 5kg

5. Acceptable responses might include, but are not limited to:

• Ball will go up
• Ball will then lose speed and begin to fall back
• The force of gravity will become greater than the force that was used to throw the ball into the air causing it to come back down

6. Acceptable responses might include, but are not limited to:

• The ball will gather speed as it rolls down the hill
• When the ball rolls onto level ground it will begin to slow down and stop
• Gravity pulls the ball down the slope of the hill
• Friction will cause the ball to slow down and stop.

    7. Answers as follows:

1. 9cm
2. 2,000kg
3. 350,000L

8. Acceptable responses might include, but are not limited to:

• Hockey puck moves faster on ice than the street because there is less friction on the ice than the street
• With less friction, the puck is able to move faster resulting in it taking a longer time to slow down

9. Acceptable responses might include, but are not limited to:

• Measure with a meter stick
• Measure on the ground
• Place meter stick end-to-end
• Keep track of number of meter sticks
• Measure from door to door