Monday, March 12, 2012

Teaspoons, Tablespoons, Cups, & Gallons


How many parts make a whole? Cooking measurements were a great way to help my son answer that question. This was a simple activity that he found surprisingly interesting. When it was done, he asked if there was more he could measure!

What we used:
4-cup liquid measuring cup
Measuring spoons
Measuring cups
Empty gallon-sized milk jug
Tap water
Funnel (optional)
Worksheet of measuring questions (download the one I made here)


Before we got started pouring and measuring, we read Stuart J. Murphy’s Room for Ripley, a Level 3 MathStart Capacity book. In the book, Carlos is super excited to buy his first fish. As he prepares the fish bowl with water, he learns all about just how much water it’ll take to make a nice home for his new guppy. One cup is not enough! 2 cups (or 1 pint) is not enough! As he continues to add more and more water, he learns how many pints are in a quart, and how many quarts are in half gallon, etc.


When we finished reading about Carlos’ new pet, I had my son using the measuring spoons, cups, and 2-cup measuring cup to complete a worksheet of math (measuring) questions.

This was great fraction practice. I was thrilled to hear his hypothesis that three 1/3-cups would equal 1 cup!

11 comments:

  1. This is a fantastic resource and way to practice measurement skills! Thank you for sharing!

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  2. This is great! I was planning something very similar in the future...now I have this worksheet to go with it! Thanks.

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  3. Great hands on, practical activities! Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Even I need this worksheet! LOL Thanks for sharing!

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  5. It's so cool when they can see it and really understand. This activity worked great for us too. This week we also learned about math this week through a hands-on measuring experience. We made English Christmas Pudding.
    http://highhillhomeschool.blogspot.com/2012/03/english-christmas-pudding.html

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  6. What a great way to work on measuring! I love your chart!

    Thank you for linking to Read.Explore.Learn.

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  7. Thanks for linking up to our Afterschool Party. This is such a hands on way to learn about measurement and fractions. I used to do something very similiar to this in my Kindergarten classroom with a large rubbermaid container filled with water and measuring cups. The worksheet is great for transfering their learning onto paper!

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  8. This sounds like a fun way to learn more about fractions. And I love that you connect it to cooking so he's also getting that practical knowledge for when he helps with baking and cooking! Thanks for linking up to the Afterschool Blog Hop!

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  9. I love how practical and useful this is! What a great way to practice fractions! Thanks so much for sharing it at Teach Me Tuesday!

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  10. I went to post this from pinterest & found it was from you! How exciting!! Thank you for being Relentlessly Fun & Deceptively Educational;)

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  11. This is great for my adult ESL literacy class! We are learning about Canada's Food Guide and they have servings of 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 2 T and such like. So this will help! Thanks! I'm planning to use it tomorrow.

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