Money and Measures

  • Tip out a purse and count up what is in it.
  • Choose the coins to pay with when out shopping.
  • Look at sizes when buying shoes or clothes.
  • Measure and compare lengths in centimetres using a tape measure or ruler: for example, books and magazines, furniture, shoes, packets, people…., first asking: ‘Which is the longest (or shortest)? then ‘How long is it?’ and then ‘How much longer (or shorter) is this than that?’
  • Count out and weigh things ready for cooking.
  • Read the time to the house, then the half hour, then the quarter hour on different clocks and watches – perhaps set an alarm clock to ring on the hour.
  • Weigh objects in grams or kilograms on kitchen scales or bathroom scales, and compare weights.
  • Work out how much milk your family drinks in a week, or how many slices of bread or pieces of fruit you eat.
  • Reckon up the cost of a few items when at the supermarket: for example, the cost of three tins of beans at 39p each, or 2 packets of soap powder at £1:49.
  • Work out how much money you and your friend need for bus fares, train tickets, to swim at the sports centre, for ice creams.
  • Work out how long the television is on in the course of the week, and find out who in your family watches most television.
  • Make a timetable for a family outing.
  • Set a video recorder to record a programme, or the microwave to cook for a number of minutes.
  • Plan what you would do if your family won £1,000,000 in the lottery.
  • Play Monopoly.
  • See what a short shopping bill would come to if you rounded each item to the nearest 10p – how close is it to the actual amount?
  • Compare the prices of petrol at different garages or petrol stations.
  • Work out catalogue prices if everything were half-price, or had 25% off.
  • Plan the food and things to do for a birthday party, working to a budget.
  • Compare the capacities of different cups and glasses, or saucepans and casserole dishes, estimating first then measuring in millilitres using a kitchen measuring jug.
  • Cook something using a recipe in a recipe book.
  • Research facts and figures such as the height of the tallest mountain or the tallest tree, the length of the longest river, how far a flea can jump, the weight of an elephant, the world record times for running the 100 metres and swimming 100 metres, the speed of the fastest train.
  • Work out how many miles the car goes to a litre of petrol, or how much petrol the car uses in a week or month or year.
  • On journeys, work out distances from home and distances still to be travelled then, when you arrive, your average speed for the whole journey.