Customary Capacity

The students will make a gallon man to learn the conversions for units of customary capacity. The students will then use their new knowledge and a computer to make a tree map showing these conversions.

A lesson plan for grade 3 Mathematics

By Jennifer Williams

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• Learn more about mathematics.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• convert customary units of capacity (gallon, quarts, pints, and cups).
• use the computer to make a tree map of gallons, quarts, pints, and cups.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

2 days

Materials/resources

• 5 different colors of construction paper
• black crayon
• scissors
• glue
• computer lab
• Thinking Maps software
• printer

Technology resources

computer lab
printer
Thinking Maps by Tom Snyder
http://www.tomsnyder.com/profdev/rst.asp

Pre-activities

none

Activities

Day One

1. Tell the students that they will be learning the customary units of capacity. Capacity is how we measure liquids. The customary units are gallon, quart, pint, and cup. Tell the students that they will make a gallon man out of these units and learn how to convert between units.
2. Give each student the first color of construction paper. Tell the students that a whole piece of paper is one gallon. Have them write gallon on the paper with their black crayon. Tell them that this will be the body of their gallon man.
3. Give students the second color of construction paper and tell them that they will be making arms and legs for their gallon man. Remind the students that the whole piece of paper is a gallon. Ask the students to fold the paper in half hamburger style. Then ask the students to fold it hamburger style again. Tell them that this is a quart. Ask them to open the paper up to see how many quarts are in a gallon (4). Have them write quart on each of the four rectangles and cut along the lines to separate the four quarts. Have them glue the quarts onto their gallon man to make arms and legs.
4. Give each student the third color of construction paper and tell the students that with this paper they will make hands and feet for their gallon man. Remind the students that the whole piece of paper is a gallon. Ask the students how many quarts are in a gallon and have them fold the paper as before to make it the size of a quart. Tell the students that there are two pints in a quart. Have the students fold the paper in half and tell them that this is a pint. Have the students open the paper up to see how many pints are in a gallon (8). Have them write pint on each of the rectangles and cut along the lines to separate the pints. Have the students glue two pints on each quart to make hands and feet for their gallon man.
5. Give each student the fourth color of construction paper and tell the students that with this paper they will make fingers and toes for their gallon man. Remind the students that the whole piece of paper is a gallon. Ask the students how many quarts are in a gallon. Have the students fold their paper as before to make a quart. Ask the students how many pints are in a quart. Have the students fold their paper as before to make a pint. Tell the students that there are two cups in a pint. Have the students fold their paper in half again to make a cup. Have the students open up their paper to see how many cups are in a gallon. Have the students write cup on each rectangle and cut apart the cups. Have the students glue two cups to every pint to make fingers and toes for their gallon man.
6. Give the students the fifth color of construction paper and tell them they will be making a head. Have the students fold their paper in half and use the line of symmetry to make a circle. Have the students draw eyes and a nose on the circle. Have the students make a smile on the circle by writing “1 gallon=4 quarts, 1 quart=2pints, 1 pint=2 cups.” Glue the circle onto the top of the gallon man.
7. Review with the students what they have learned about the customary units of capacity.

Day Two

1. Review with the students the customary units of capacity (how they folded their paper to make the gallon man).
2. Ask the students several conversions (i.e. how many quarts are in a gallon) and use the gallon man to answer.
3. Tell the students that they will be making a tree map to show what they have learned about the customary units of capacity.
4. Open up the Thinking Maps program.
5. Tell the students to click on the button to create a new map (the button that looks like a pencil is drawing a circle map).
6. Tell the students to click on the tree map.
7. Tell the students to type gallon on the top of their tree map. Ask the students how many quarts are in a gallon. Tell the students to add four quarts below the gallon on their tree map. To do this click on the ‘add a subcategory’ button (the top button on the left side of the screen), hold the mouse over the word gallon so it turns gray, and click. Repeat until they have added four quarts. Write quart on each of these lines.
8. Ask the students how many pints are in a quarts. Tell the students to add two pints to all of their quarts by using the ‘add a subcategory’ button.
9. Repeat to add 2 cups to every pint.
10. Tell the students that they need to put their name on the tree map. Ask them to go to the left side of the screen and click on the button that says ‘more buttons’ then to click on the button that says ‘title.’ Have the students type their name.
11. Have the students print one copy of their tree map.

Assessment

The students knowledge of gallon, quart, pint, and cup can be assessed by their gallon man and tree map. The students knowledge of computer may be assessed through teacher observation.

Supplemental information

none

Related websites

Thinking Maps by Tom Snyder
http://www.tomsnyder.com/profdev/rst.asp

Comments

If Thinking Maps software is not available, then the same thing can be done with Inspiration or Kidspiration software.