The Whole 9 Yards

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

We often need to convert to different rates and measurements depending on what we are doing.

Think of it like a puzzle or game!

Let's look at this scenario:

You need 7 yards of fabric for a craft project. You have 2 feet of a solid fabric, 4 feet of a striped fabric, and 3 feet of a floral fabric.

• How many more feet of fabric do you need to make the craft project?

This can be difficult, so let's practice some conversions before we dive into the questions.

We will use this conversion table to help us:

• Did you answer those correctly?

If you need help with these conversions, follow these steps:

1. Set up a proportion with the units being converted.
2. Cross multiply.
3. Solve for the unknown variable.
4. You will have your new measurement!

Now that we have learned how to easily convert, let's look at that original question again:

You need 7 yards of fabric for a craft project. You have 2 feet of a solid fabric, 4 feet of a striped fabric, and 3 feet of a floral fabric.

• How many more feet of fabric do you need to make the craft project?

The question mentions yards and feet. So let's do our conversion! We will convert 7 yards into feet.

• So how many feet are in 7 yards?

• But, is this our answer?
• Does the question ask for the number of feet?

The question is: How many more feet of fabric do you need to make the craft project?

• How many feet do you have already?

The question says you have 2 feet of a solid fabric, 4 feet of a striped fabric, and 3 feet of a floral fabric. That's a total of 9 feet of fabric.

• And how many feet are needed for the project?

To see the amount of fabric needed, subtract what you have from what is needed:

21 feet - 9 feet = 12 feet

You will still need to purchase 12 feet of fabric.

Now, let's make that more complicated just for fun!

• If you need to buy 12 feet of fabric, how many yards is that?

Now that you have a handle on converting measurements, let's move on to the Got It? section.