This week I have enjoyed thinking about creative ways to look at volume and capacity. I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of a great example of a right prism (the pallet of toilet paper) when visiting a shopping centre. Check out your local supermarket for lots more ideas!
Large volumes:
Using this picture as an inspiration, here are some questions that I would ask kids:
- How many packets of toilet paper are in the stack? Remember that one packet is missing from the top layer but that all of the other layers are full.
- If each packet contains 5 x 2 x 2 toilet rolls, how many toilet rolls are in the stack? Remember that one packet is missing from the top layer but that all of the other layers are full.
- Estimate how long this amount of toilet paper would last in your family. Show your working.
Small volumes:
Using kitchen measuring spoons and cups as an inspiration, here are some ideas for investigating with your class:
- How many tablespoons do you think it would take to fill one cup?
- Use a measuring syringe to measure 5mL of water. Can you fit all of the water into a teaspoon? How does it compare?
- How many cups fill up one litre? Two litres? Three litres?
- Are all coffee cups and drinking glasses the same as “one cup measure”?
- How much can “one spoonful” of sugar added to a cup of coffee change when it is heaped rather than flat? Try a competition for which student can get the most sugar onto one teaspoon. It is rather enlightening!
- Investigate adding specific small volumes of food dye to set volumes of water. Compare how the colours alter with given amounts, especially when mixing two different colours together.