Capacity

We've moved on to capacity in our Measurement Unit.  

So far we've covered the following in Unit 6: 

• the calendar
• time
• money 

We had a really great time learning about how capacity is all about what a container holds.
We went "grocery shopping" and looked at a number of containers and their measurements. We used milk cartons to demonstrate some common capacities.  We joked that without containers to hold our foods, yogurt and pudding would be very messy to eat, let alone pack in our lunches! 

Today's lesson was a continuation of yesterday's lesson about the litre and the millilitre.  
Here's what we covered/discussed: 

• what does a litre look like? 
• a litre of liquid will fill four of our classroom cups 
• when we want to write "one litre" we write: 1L  
• there are 1000 millilitres in one litre 
• a quarter of a litre is 250 mL   
• a tear-dropper holds 1 mL of liquid  
• a bathtub holds 250 litres of water

I was really pleased to see the boys and girls using their counting by fours song to help them solve problems such as "If you had two litres of chocolate milk, how many classroom cups could you fill?"  

We'll continue our capacity/mass talk when we return from the March Break.

Memorizing this photo/fact is essential for
students to solve a number of problem solving situations
in this unit. 

 

The move away from Practice Pages

We're now on the other side of the hill, on our way toward Grade Four. In order to prepare the boys and girls fully for the workload and demands of being a Junior student, we've started to move away from Practice Pages and instead to "assigned work".  Sounds a lot like Practice Pages, I know, but I want to change the students' mindset about how homework works in future grades.

Practice Pages are handed out, assigned by me and there's a lot of "hand-holding" with respect to what is expected.  

To help the students to become more independent, homework on Tuesday and Thursday nights will start to include work that's part of a bigger task (e.g. "complete the web for a paragraph"). It will also include unfinished classroom work.  I'll always explain the assignment to the students, but gone are the days of reminding them to write neatly, in full sentences, etc. They'll need to apply this on their own and accept the consequences when they don't. It'll be more about acting as an independent thinker than it has in the past.   

We're not done with Practice Pages, I'll still assign those from time to time, but in order to set my students up for success in future grades, this progression is essential. This also puts a higher level of responsibility on students because there is a chance that without completing their homework (or bringing it back to school) the work period the following day could be effected. 

Today's Math Goals

Students are asked to memorize that one litre (1L) can
be divided equally into four 250mL cups.

Understanding the Four Levels of Achievement

The boys and girls are bringing home their feedback and score from their board games today.  To help them understand their score, I created a slideshow.  I wanted students to understand, in "kid language" the difference between each level.