We have been learning how to measure linear objects.  After measuring books, toys and other objects around the classroom, the students decided that they wanted to measure a student.  They chose one larger unit and one smaller unit.  Soon, they discovered that it took a lot longer to measure him using the smaller unit (e.g. the snappy cubes).  Reflecting on the problem, many students decided it was best to use larger units to measure larger items.  The student we measured is 61 snappy cubes long, or 8 markers long.