Units Of Measurement

Our Teaching Area Activities For Kindergarten are 100% hands-on! Download math games and printables created especially to help EYFS students learn how to measure Area using informal units.

These teacher resources are guaranteed to inspire your teaching and your students, making the concept of area and measuring with non-standard units a breeze!

Teaching Kindergarten Students to measure Area in maths is NOT always part of the measurement curriculum. Most states in Australia do not introduce this concept at this year level so please check your State’s requirements for teaching non-standard measurement for Kindergarten before teaching the area concept!

Before kids are introduced to measuring Area in maths using the length x breadth formula, they need to be taught the foundation skills and steps of the measurement process.  For EYFS learners teaching Area involves using informal measurement with non-standard units such as blocks, paperclips, counters etc…

In the Early Years measurement curriculum, no matter which attributes are being taught; length, mass, capacity or area, the teaching focus is on measurement vocabulary and non-standard informal measuring units.

And there’s no better way to build this deep understanding than with activities that encourage kids to get hands-on and do the measuring for themselves.

Sounds straightforward?

Unfortunately, it’s not, it’s more difficult than you may realise. In my experience as a numeracy coach, I have found that many measurement activities focused on the counting process are not helping kids to learn to measure. 

With this in mind we made sure that our Area Activities for Kindergarten, PrePrimary & EYFS were created to make sure students: 

• know what part of the object or shape needs to be measured
• select the right tool to measure the attribute
• select the same unit and not several different units to measure an object
• measure without gaps or overlaps
• know how to deal with partial units

Area Vocabulary Word List

Here’s a list of words to include when teaching EYFS & Kindergarten students area:

• surface
• inside
• outside
• shape
• area
• boundary
• large area, larger area, largest
• small area, smaller area, smallest area
• same area
• closed shape
• open shape

Area Skills & Understanding

Here’s what to teach when teaching non-standard area:

• Make closed/open shapes – showing the enclosed shape by the boundary
• measure & compare area by superimposing the same shapes. this involves placing them on top of each other to see which has the largest/smallest / same area
• Order & compare the area of 2-3 shapes
• use rows or columns with no gaps or overlaps to cover an area
• record the area as the number of units used
• recognise that area can include half/part of a unit
• use an appropriate unit to measure, explaining why
• choose the same unit to measure the areas being compared
• know that the larger area has more units
• know that the area is conserved if it rearranged
• use 1 of the chosen unit to measure the area
• move and align the unit in a systematic way to preserve the size
• represent rows and columns by extending or drawing in lines to make a grid
• explain the relationship between unit size and the number of units used
• express the same area in terms of different-sized units
• know that measurement techniques must be precise and consistent
• Estimating – Encourage students to estimate their answer before completing the task, rather than guessing, use a referent e.g. the cat is shorter than me. Chunk or break the shape or object to be measured into several manageable parts to estimate the total. e.g. the distance from a-b is about … and the distance from c-d is about so the total is_)