Milk It for All It's Worth

Students will cooperatively discover the equivalent measures of capacity. In addition, students will be given a unit price of milk and will be asked to calculate the price of other units of capacity based on the price given. They will then use this information to determine the most economical buy.

A lesson plan for grade 3 Mathematics

By ann dawson

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• understand units of capacities.
• discover equivalent units i.e. 2 cups = 1 pint.
• convert units of capacity.
• determine the most economical unit of milk to purchase.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1 hour

Materials/resources

• Containers measuring one cup, pint, quart, and gallon
• Access to water
• Worksheet “Milk It for All It’s Worth”

Technology resources

Calculator for each group

Pre-activities

Using student’s prior knowledge, discuss measures of capacity.

Survey class to see what unit of capacity their family usually purchases when buying milk. Why?

Activities

1. Divide students into cooperative groups.
2. Give each group one of each of the following unit containers: cup, pint, quart, and gallon.
3. Have students estimate equivalent units prior to “hands-on” activity.
4. Students use water to discover the equivalent measures i.e. 4 quarts = 1 gallon.
5. Students record their equivalences in their math journal.
6. As a class, discuss how one could calculate the price of other units given the unit price of one particular unit.
7. Hand out the worksheet “Milk It for All It’s Worth.”
8. Go over the example at the top of the worksheet.
9. Give each group a calculator. Have students go back to their cooperative groups to complete the converting worksheet.
10. As a group, students will choose which unit of capacity would be the most economical unit to buy and support their answer based on the worksheet calculations.
11. Close by asking students to summarize the capacity equivalences and discuss how today’s lesson might help them in the future.

Assessment

Assess:

• accuracy of equivalent capacity units in cooperative group activity.
• worksheet accuracy in unit price of milk.
• student’s written response to “most economical buy.”

Supplemental information

Attachment “Milk It for All It’s Worth” (Created on Macintosh using ClarisWorks).

Related websites

N/A

Comments

Lesson could be extended to the comparison of different milk brand prices.
Graphs, by hand or computer, could be used to illustrate price comparisons.