A lesson that measures up

Christine Carrillo

Using feet of all shapes and sizes, third-graders at Waldorf School

of Orange County in Costa Mesa measured nearly everything in sight on

Wednesday.

Some slid their construction paper foot, which they outlined

themselves, across the room to uncover its length and width. Others

twisted them from toe to heel in search of the dimensions of their

school desks. The rest of them used the finger placement method --

marking where the tip of their measuring foot left off to figure out

the distance between their classroom door and the girl’s bathroom

door.

Their lesson in measurement didn’t end there.

In addition to calculating the number of their feet it took to get

from point A to point B, they also had to log their measurements on a

sheet of paper and compare their figures with those of their partner.

“It’s fun because we get to skip math,” said 9-year-old Taylor

Young, not realizing that they hadn’t skipped that subject at all.

It’s fun “because we get to create our own stuff and because we have

different feet sizes,” he said.

They eventually shared their individual measurements with the

entire class -- and found just how much they varied. And that led

them to understand the importance of universal measurement.

“It’s all in the experience, and I think it’s just a more rich and

fulfilling experience,” said Caren Cua, who has taught this same

group of students for the past three years. “We try to stay away from

the abstract.”

With this lesson, as with every lesson taught at Waldorf, it began

with a story. The story was about a king who wants to get a table

made. He provides the craftsman with his own dimensions and the

craftsman, who happens to be very short, builds it in accordance with

his dimensions. And what do you know, the finished product doesn’t

measure up.

Just as the students learned about the need for universal

measurements from the story, they also learned that lesson by the

group activity that had them moving their feet around the classroom.

“We try to reach children through the thinking, the feeling and

the doing,” said Diane Kastner, director of community outreach for he

school. “All these things are incorporated in the subject matter.”

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot

education writer Christine Carrillo visits a campus in the

Newport-Mesa area and writes about her experience.