Sometimes the best lessons are the ones not in the plans!

 I want to share a spur of the moment math activity my class enjoyed on Friday. One of my students was surprised by her uncle who came to have lunch with her. He is a former University of Georgia basketball player who now plays professionally over seas. The kids were in awe of his height and were bombarding him with questions. So, I invited him back to our classroom to answer the questions and to help us with an on-the-spot math activity.  We measured, problem solved, and estimated.

sorry for the blurry picture, not sure what happened

First, we measured his height with yard sticks. We determined he was 6 feet 8 inches tall. Then, we measured his height using rulers. We discussed which would be the BEST tool for measuring something large, a ruler or yard stick and why. Then we estimated my height to be closer 5 feet (I'm 5'5) and estimated  his height to be close to 7 feet. Then we determined "about" how many more feet he is than I am.  The kids LOVED doing this and I think our basketball player did too. A special thank you to Steven Thomas.