One day in class, Mrs. Smith's students were learning about measurements, and which standard length unit needed to be used to measure certain objects.

Mrs. Smith wanted to teach her students to determine how much longer one object is than another. She knew that her students needed to learn this, otherwise they would do bad on their test coming up.

She tells her students that different objects required certain length units; smaller items can be measured in inches or centimeters, and larger items can be measured in feet and yards.

She tells her students, "Take out your rulers, and lets measure some smaller objects that are in your desks! Now which length units will we be using to measure smaller items?"

"Inches or centimeters!" the kids say.

Little Johnny uses his ruler to measure his pencil and a paper clip on his desk. Using his ruler, Johnny sees that his pencil is 7 inches long, and his paper clip is 2 inches long. Mrs. Smith asks him, "Johnny, which one of your items is longer, and by how much?"

Johnny says, my pencil is longer! Since the pencil is 7 inches long, and the paper clip is 2 inches long, I subtract 2 from 7, and I see that my pencil is 5 inches longer than my paper clip!"

"Very good Johnny!" said Mrs. Smith. She then turned to Chloe, who was measuring two items at her desk using her ruler: her glue stick and her book. As she measured her glue stick and her book, she saw that her glue stick was 4 inches long, and her book was 11 inches long.

Mrs. Smith says to Chloe, "Which one of your items is longer, and by how much?"

"My book is longer." says Chloe. "Since my glue stick is 4 inches long, and my book is 11 inches long, I subtract 4 from 11, and I know that my book is 7 inches longer than my glue stick!"

"Great job!" says Mrs. Smith. "I am proud of you guys! It looks like you are getting the hang of it!"

Mrs. Smith then says to her class, "Lets go outside and see what else we can measure! There are small, medium, and large items that we can measure, so make sure to bring both your rulers and the yard stick."

The class follows their teacher outside, excited for the many things they get to measure.

When the children got outside, they saw many things that they could measure: sticks, flowers, balls to play with, a jump rope, and even worms in the ground!

The kids got excited, and they immediately started measuring items to see which items were longer, and by how much.