Distance, Area, Volume Activities for Kids

What is the difference between inches, square inches and cubic inches?

This is the first post of our distance, area and volume unit study.

Learning mathematical concepts at too rapid a pace can create confusion for kids. Terms like perimeter and area become a mush of words that have to do with geometry, but make no sense. Inches, square inches and cubic inches all sound alike, but can't be distinguished. Sometimes it's best to start over covering the basics one concept at a time.

We spent several days covering distance, area and volume. For my 10 year old son it was a much needed review to straighten out the jumble in his head. For my 7 year old daughter, it served as geometry lessons for the first time. Both gained much knowledge from the simple activities done over the course of two weeks.

Day 1: Distance, Area and Volume - Introduction


Inches are used to measure distance and can answer the question how far away is it? Square inches are used to measure area and answer the question how big is it? Cubic inches are used to measure volume and answer the question how much is there?

We used yarn and paper to construct these simple manipulatives. The set on the top are one inch, one square inch and one cubic inch. Row two contains two inches, four square inches, and eight cubic inches.

Constructing these figures made the differences between distance, area and volume immediately clear.
Check out these great blog hops. They are filled with activity ideas for kids.