Do your children like playing and exploring with a measuring tape? I recently introduced some measuring activities to my preschooler and found the activities that included a measuring tape were the most popular.

Note that we used a children's measuring tape. Please check your measuring tape carefully before giving it to a child, at this age I would only provide a children's measuring tape or use a soft fabric style measuring tape. Metal measuring tapes can be sharp and can retract quickly and aren't suitable for young children. 

Our measuring tape is from The Lovevery Problem Solver Play Kit. Learning Resources also has a Children's Measuring Tape and a small fabric measuring tape (often found in fabric and craft stores) could work well too. 

Let's take a look at the simple measuring activities we've been using this week. I only had one of these activities out at a time. 

Measuring real items from nature with a measuring tape was the most popular of our measuring activities. I took these items from the kitchen (banana) and from our nature basket. It would be easy to find many of these items on our nature walk or we could take the tape measure on the nature walk and measure things that we find!!

First I demonstrated how to use the measuring tape. Otto didn't measure everything accurately but he loved finding out how long everything was. Remember to teach by teaching not by correcting. When Otto measures inaccurately I take note but I don't correct him. I will show him again at another time how to measure more accurately, focusing on the area he needs help with. 

At this age we want children to love learning and exploring. By doing these activities he is also learning about length, centimetres, how to use (hold, pull out) the measuring tape and for the larger objects learning about larger numbers.

Measuring household objects with a measuring tape. 

Otto also loved this activity. It could not be easier to put this activity together. We've used a toy tiger, peg, marker, key, wooden spoon and a toy car. 

This is also easy to rotate, we could add new objects to measure each day. 

Learning to measure paper with a ruler. Using a ruler wasn't as fun but it's still interesting to explore and learn with. 

We used paper cut to 5, 10, 15 and 20 centimetres. 

Measuring coloured pipe cleaners with a ruler. As the pipe cleaners are relatively flat they are easy to measure and are slightly more interesting than measuring paper strips. 

Measuring paper dinosaurs with a rule. I love this Dinosaur Measuring Activity (download from Etsy). The dinosaurs are to scale and are fun and engaging.

It's a little tricky to measure the dinosaurs but it's engaging for children who love these prehistoric creatures. 

This post includes affiliate links. Thank you so much for your support!!

Lovevery products are c/o Lovevery.