Unit 6, Lesson 1
Compare Lengths
Grade 1
Preparation
Lesson Purpose
The purpose of this lesson is for students to compare the lengths of objects by lining up the endpoints and to order objects by length.
Lesson Narrative
In kindergarten, students compared the lengths of two objects directly by lining up the endpoints. They described the objects using such language as "longer" and "shorter." In this unit, the words “longer than” and “shorter than” are encouraged, although students may use “taller than” in certain contexts related to height.
In this lesson, students compare the lengths of objects and consider how they know which is longer or shorter. Then they order three objects by length.
The materials used in this lesson will be used again in the next lesson.
- Representation
- MLR2
- Explain (orally) a strategy for comparing the length of two objects and ordering up to three objects by length.
- Use “longer than” and “shorter than” to compare (orally and in writing) the length of up to three objects.
- Let’s compare and order objects by length.
Required Materials
Activity 2
Activity 3
Required Preparation
Activity 1
- Each group of 4 needs 10‒12 objects to measure (thin classroom objects like pencils, crayons, paper clips, toothpicks, markers) including connecting cube towers of 3, 5, and 8.
Activity 2
- Each group of 4 needs the collection of objects from the previous activity.
Activity 3
- Gather materials from:
- Target Numbers, Stages 1–3
- Five in a Row, Stages 1–6
- Get Your Numbers in Order, Stage 1
Suggested Centers
NoneTeacher Reflection Questions
Reflect on how you can reinforce the work done in today's lesson outside of math class. When can you ask students to compare the lengths of objects around them?
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