How do you teach units of measure?

[Gamom3]

Those have got to be the most confusing for me and my dc.
I get inches, feet, yards, and miles, but the rest(mm-cm, g-mg and etc..) are very confusing!
How do you go about teaching these to your dc and getting them to remember them?

[JFS in IL]

it is found in Rainbow Resources, among other places. For measurement there is a series of four booklets, and they cover it all, including metric, as clearly as metric can be covered for us non-Europeans.;) I've used them along with Developmental Math (which does not cover measurement) and a fourth grader, although they are useful for not than fourth grade. For the youngest kids (K, 1st, 2nd) they can help MOM understand the material, so she can in turn teach it to the younger kids.

[nestof3]

It is true that we Americans are more accustomed to inches, feet, etc., but the metric system is actually much easier to use in mathematics (because of their relationship to one another). You child will have to memorize the prefixes, which word memorization helps when the prefix's meaning is taught.

Again, worksheets will help with practicing this info. Also, you can see if your library has any good books to help children with measurement concepts. They often have good activities which help as well.

Here's one worksheet:
http://www.dositey.com/worksheet/length/lengthm.htm

And some more resources:
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00000356.shtml

And games:
http://www.gamequarium.com/metricsystem.html

[Targhee]

like look at things which weight a certain amount of grams, have volume in liters, or have a length in meters. Instead of trying to convert ("an inch is about two and a half centimeters") look at them as being metric. You can do this by getting metric manipulatives (like cm cubes, gram weights, a meter stick, etc.) and you can also look on the packaging of familiar objects (a soda bottle for example).

The metric system is amazingly simple. Each type of measurement has a standard unit:
length in meters
mass in grams
volume in liters

then their are prefixes which mean different things:
deka=ten (or 10 to the power of 1 - aka 10)
kilo=thousand (or 10 to the power or 3)
mega=million (or ten to the power of 6)
centi=hundredth (or ten to the power of -2)
etc. here's a link (http://www.essex1.com/people/speer/large.html)

One KILOgram is the same as one thousand grams. To convert Kg into grams, you simply move the decimal place to the right three times (because kilo=10 to the power of three).

Become familiar with the standard unit of each measurement in metrics (so that is becomes as meaningful as a foot, or a pound, or a gallon), and then the conversion from mm to cm is rather simple. Much easier than "standard" measurements because metrics all have a base-ten relationship.

HTH

[Gamom3]

That kilo for kilogram means to kill the number...in a sort of way and milligram means to make it bigger
The same for Kiloliter and Milliliter...this seemed to help him a great deal.
But when it came to centimeter, meter, millimeter and so on we got confused and had to look at the paper.

Is there any sayings that help?