1. Encourage students to make many comparison. Allow them to decide if given objects are bigger, smaller, longer, shorter, heavier, and lighter of the same as the others. Encourage them to compare object against nonstandard units of measurement.Measure things by arm lengths, spaces, handfuls,and the like.
2. Provide the students with many opportunities to measure the length, mass, and volume of a wide variety of objects.
3. Encourage students to estimate. Once a metric unit has been introduced, allow students opportunities to estimate about how many litres are in a containers, about how many metres high a ceiling is, about how many kilometers to the next town, etc.
4. Allow students many opportunities to select the appropriate units for specific measurements, i.e., will the distance between two towns be measured in cm, m, or km?
5. Have students find measurements of common objects that will help them remember important units - a man is about the thickness of an old 10 centavo coin, a cm is about the width paper clip, a m is about the height of the doorknob from the floor.
6. Be consistent in your usage of terms, particularly when there is a discrepancy between the "official" and common usage. For instance, the official spelling is mere and litre instead of meter and liter.
7. Consider the following when using the metric system:
a. Metric symbols (m, kmg, and kg) are not capitalized except for those representing proper names like
Celsius, unless they begin the sentence. Litre is an exception to this rule.
b. Periods are not used with metric symbols - kg not kg. or k.g.
c. Symbols are not pluralized - kg represents kilogram or kilograms, never kgs.
d. Decimal numbers are used rather then common fraction - 0.5 km instead of 1/2 km.
e. The degree Celsius symbol should always be written "C."
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