Making Measurement Man – Our Measurement Unit on Gallons, Quarts, Pints, etc.

Last week we spent the week doing a brief unit on measurement — the imperial units.  We didn’t touch on the metric system at all.  I wanted the kids to come away knowing the basic facts like 16 tablespoons in a cup and 4 quarts in a gallon.

Day 1:

I brought out a number of different bottles, cups and measuring spoons and the kids and I went over what each one was — the gallon, quart, pint, cup, teaspoon and tablespoon.  I made sure they all knew which was which.

Then I handed them all a worksheet that had basic questions such as: How many cups are in a pint? and How many teaspoons are in a tablespoon? (Pages 1 and 2 of the Measurement Pack I made. See the photo below.)

Without too much more guidance than that, I had them all pour away.  They used the pitchers to measure out pints or quarts and then poured the water from there into the gallon container.

 Click on the picture or this link to download the free  Measurement Packet-Gallons-Quarts-Pints-Cups

 Day 2: The next day we went over a few more pages of the measurement pack.

For example, they filled out the square (as a gallon) and split it into various sections to show the smaller measurements (quarts-being the 4 quarters, pints splitting the quart into 2, etc.)

Day 4: We started the day by reviewing how many quarts in a gallon; how many teaspoons in a tablespoon, etc. etc. Then we made the cute graphic. We drew the gallon (G) first and fit 4 quarts (Q) in it, followed by two pints (P) in each quart, etc. (An example is in that same packet as well.)  Everyone drew their own graphic and then they hung them up somewhere in the homeschool room.

Day 5: Measurement Man

I saw this adorable activity on Mathwire.com years and years ago.  I didn’t want to go over this when we lived in Australia (where they use the metric system) … and then two years zipped by before we ever tackled this unit!  The kids loved this project!

We had made the head the day before while working on African masks.  (More about that in another post.)

The body is the gallon, the arms and upper legs are the quarts, the forearm and shins are pints and the fingers and toes are cups.

The best thing about this project was putting on our African music and dancing all around the room. The kids had a complete blast — really getting into the music and having a ball with measurement man!

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