The National Curriculum Programme of Study states that:

Pupils should be taught to:

* compare, describe and solve practical problems for lengths and heights (e.g. long/short, longer/shorter, tall/short, double/half)

* measure and begin to record lengths and heights

This is very much practical in nature, with children comparing the lengths and heights of a variety of objects.

Much of the early work on measurement will be done on a practical basis, with children comparing the lengths of two objects, using terms such as ‘shorter than’, ‘taller than’, ‘longer than’ etc and ‘is the same as’ and ‘is equal to’.

At first non-standard units of measures will be used, such as cubes, paper clips or hands.

Later a ruler will be introduced marked in whole centimetres.

We have a fabulous range of pages covering all these aspects of length which we highly recommend, but this is very much a practical topic to enjoy both inside and outside.