Kindergarten Teachers: Need an Engaging Length Lesson?

I recently observed my mentee teach an engaging lesson that reached auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners.  She used the Yarn-Length Hunt lesson in Vicki Bachman’s Sizing Up Measurement:  Activities for Grades K-2 Classrooms.  In this lesson students compare string to their group members’ strings.  They also form a line and compare their string with each student in the class.  Then students are supposed to go on a hunt for objects that are shorter and longer than their string.  Instead of students going on a length hunt my mentee had tubs of objects awaiting students at their tables for them to compare with their string.  We decided on this instead of the length hunt to keep the students more focused.  Students compared the objects with their string and traced or drew them on paper underneath the headings shorter or longer (than their string).  All of these activities were very beneficial and led to students using rich math vocabulary with their peers.  In reflection we thought instead of students drawing their objects, it would be better for them to trace them.  Alternatively, students could use clip art objects that represented the items in their tubs, and then students could glue them down underneath the headings shorter or longer.  When students draw their objects, they are difficult to decipher and to compare with the string for assessment.  This lesson is excellent for its simplicity to reach kindergarten children.  With just a few tweaks, we found it to be an excellent lesson that resulted in mastery of the vocabulary shorter, longer, and compare.