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Olympic Mathematics - Kangaroo long jumps for Year 4-6

Who's a kangaroo? You're a kangaroo! Time to show everyone what you got - jump as far as you can and prove your kangaroo status.



Tools: Measuring tapes.


Main event


Students choose a jump line.


Keep two feet together (modified kangaroo long jumps to prevent time-wasting 'run ups' and chaos).


Jump and ask your partner to estimate, then measure.


Record the jump in all ways possible:


  • As metres and centimetres (1m and 25cm)


Pro tip: Start with this way of recording first, separating the 'whole metres' from the 'centimetres' figure.


  • As centimetres (1m = 100cm, so 100 + 25 = 125cm)

  • As metres (1m 25cm = 1 whole metre + 25 parts of the next metre, so 1.25m).


Pro tip: The decimal point shows where the wholes end and the parts begin. So for 2m 60cm the 2 shows the whole metres and the 60 is the parts out of 100 of the next metre (since there are 100 centimetre parts in 1 metre). Therefore, 2m 60cm is 2.60m or 2.6m or 2.60000m (write it all ways, as the 0 is of no consequence as it represents 0 of the smaller decimal place values that are not involved in your jump at the moment).


Pro tip: Repeatedly emphasise 100cm = 1m, 1m = 100cm.


Extension 1: More ways:


- As a decimal fraction (1 whole metre and 25 out of 100 parts of the next metre, so 1 25/100). Also 1 whole metre, 2 out of 10 parts of a metre, 5 out of 100 parts of a metre, so 1 + 2/10 + 5/100.


- As an equivalent simplified fraction:




Any other ways you can brainstorm...


Extension 2: Who can estimate the closest - you or your teammate?


Extension 3: How far off are you from a kangaroo's top measured jump distance? Or from your teammate's jump?


Extension 4: How far off are you from the current world record for long jump?


Extension 5: What was the mean, median, mode and range of your jumps?

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