Liquid Measurments Lesson

Today was an interesting day.  I woke up, soar, grumpy...you know pregnant.  Anyway, after a quick jaunt to my favorite coffee stand, (I was out of creamer this morning) I fueled myself on my daily allotment of caffeine (I am pregnant after all)   in preparation for today's lesson.  Liquid measurements! Oh boy, when the kids saw me bringing buckets of water, measuring cups and glasses out, they where VERY excited!  A quick simple lesson that left an impression on all ages of the family. Is there any better way to learn than hands on?

You will need:
Water

1 gallon sized container (I used glass so they could see the water)
1 quart jar
1 pint jar
measuring cups
An observation sheet (see below)

I made my own observation sheet for the two school age kids to record their findings.  I refuse to pay to convert to PDF so here is what it mainly consisted of (I copied and pasted this from my file):

Fill the containers with water to determine the liquid measurements.

__________cups = _____________ Pint

__________ Pints = _____________ Quart

_________ Quarts = __________ Gallon

Abbreviations:

Cups = C

Pints = Pt.

Quarts = qt.

Gallons = gal 

Write the abbreviations for the following:

·        Two cups equal one pint.

·        Two pints equal one quart.

·        Four quarts equal one gallon.

The lesson itself is simple enough.  How many cups did it take to fill the pint, how many pints for the quart, how many quarts for the gallon.  I let each kid take turns filling them up, and the littles had a blast dumping water....everywhere.  We then went on to learn the abbreviations for the measurements, and rewrote our first observations with the  abbreviations.  I plan to expand this lesson in the following week.  How many pint in a gallon, cups, etc. But this is a great start

Enjoy,

Crystal 

BONUS: afterwards I let them "continue their experiment," and they kept at it for well over an hour!  

~C