Play the Measuring Game

What You Need:

• Deck of cards with the face cards (jacks, queens, and kings) removed
• Metric ruler
• Pencil
• 2 sheets of white paper
• Scissors
• Markers
• Penny

What You Do:

1. Have your child trace a penny on white paper, cut out the circle and draw an ant on the cut-out circle.
2. Shuffle and place the deck face down on the table.
3. Have him place his ant at the bottom of a sheet of white paper that's positioned vertically.
4. Encourage him to draw the first card. Have him measure the distance from his ant in a straight line up the page, drawing both a line to the end point and marking the end of the line with a pencil dot.  (Example: If he draws a 5 card, he measures a line 5 centimeters long and draws a dot at the end of the line.)
5. Have him write the number of centimeters his ant traveled next to the drawn line.
6. Move the ant up the line and have him stop on the dot.
7. Continue drawing cards and measuring until the ant reaches the top of the page.

Variation: Create an abstract line drawing by allowing your child to measure out an ant path, or maze. How many centimeter measurements and lines does it take to complete a full ant path?