What Makes Something Alive - Virginia Department of Education

Session 3.7 – Measuring Tree Heights
Teacher Questions & Notes
Procedures
9. Go outside with the class. Tell them that before they measure
the height of a tree (or the corner of the school building if a tree
is not readily available) that they are going to practice as a class
using the tape measure to measure the height of an object too tall
to measure in the standard way. To do this, do the following:
a. Pick one student to sit on the ground.
b. Line up the rest of the class in a straight line with all the
students side by side and the line of students facing the
student who is sitting.
c. Have the students in the line hold up one thumb and slowly
move backward until the student who is sitting is the same
height as their thumb. When they reach that point, they
should stop.
d. Have all the students stand very still where they stopped and
have them point their thumb sideways to the right.
e. Have the student who is sitting remain sitting and hold the
beginning of the tape measure.
f. Take the other end of the tape measure and tell the class that
you are going to move to their right from the sitting student
until they tell you that you have reached the end of their
thumb that they are holding sideways. Let the tape measure
out as you move to the right.
g. Stop when the class says that you have reached the end of
their thumbs.
h. The length of the tape measure that you let out should be the
height (sitting height) of the sitting student who was
measured. Hold the rope next to the sitting student to see if
that is correct. (It is much easier to do this activity if the
student is sitting so that you can easily measure them with
the tape measure.)
i. Explain to the students that they are now going to measure
the height of a tree using the same method.
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Virginia Animals and their Habitats
Topic 3