Measurement and conversions: Interactive Math Notebooks

Again, I'm behind on posting this! Where does the time go?  We did measurement back in March, and while we did a lot with it, I'm just going to outline what we did with our notebooks in this post.  We began by discussing the two systems of measurement.  We decided the best way to organize this information was in a T chart (we REALLY like those around here!) and we wanted to keep all the types of measurement (length, capacity, weight) together as well.  Here is the list we came up with:

Next, we brainstormed some of the basic conversions we remembered for length for each system and wrote them down.  Lastly, we took notes on an easy way to convert between units of measurement.   A BIG "thank you" to my coworker Adrienne, the 4th grade math teacher, for sharing her mnemonic device!  Some of my students remembered it from last year!  She taught us that there are two ways to change units: to multiply or divide.  When converting from a Big unit to a Small unit, you Multiply, so we think "Best Soccer Mom."  When converting from a Small unit to a Big unit, you Divide, so we think "Silly Babies Dancing."  We always giggle at "Silly Babies Dancing!"

Below is the anchor chart hanging in our room to serve as a reminder.  Another "thank you" to Adrienne!  I got this straight from her!  Thank goodness for kind coworkers willing to share and kick around ideas with!