Measuring Volume

Mar. 24-25, 2014

Next up on the measuring agenda--measuring volume. We started with measuring rice and using this worksheet (I simplified it a bit for Seth).  Not sure how much he really understood, but at least it's an introduction!

Then we moved on to measuring with water. I had Seth pick 5 containers of different sizes and fill them with water. Then we dumped the water into a measuring cup and saw how much there was: 

Then I had him line the containers up in order from least to greatest volume: 

He was surprised by order of a few of these. Just because they're taller doesn't mean they always hold more!

Measuring Weight

Mar. 10, 2014

After measuring length & height, we started learning about measuring weight. We used our bathroom scale for big items and our kitchen scale for small items.

Finding out how much the baby toy basket weighs

To help him visualize the differences in weight, I had him fill out this worksheet: 

We found a Han Solo toy that weighed one ounce, our Kindle weighed one pound, and the baby toy basket was a nice, even ten pounds. And guess what Seth finally found that weighed 20 pounds? 

See? Little sisters ARE good for something!

Beginning Measuring

Feb. 25-Mar. 4, 2014

Our next unit was on measuring! We started off playing a fun game using non-standard units of measurement. I had one pile of things to be measured (rug, trampoline, shoe, etc.) and one pile of things to measure with (cars, popsicle sticks, pencils, etc.).  Seth would draw one from each pile and measure!

Measuring the rug with popsicle sticks

Measuring the trampoline with cars

From there we moved on to standard units of measurement. We first talked about measuring length in inches. I had Seth roll out playdough snakes and then told him how long to cut the pieces. He would have to measure using the ruler and cut each piece correctly: 

Next we talked about measuring length and height:

Our dino is four inches long...

...and about 6 inches high!

More measuring to come!

Pumpkin Math!

October 21st, 2013

We ended up with quite a few pumpkins after our trip to the pumpkin patch, so I thought it would be fun to use them for some school activities. First Seth lined them all up according to size and labeled them 1 through 8. 

Then we filled out a paper for each pumpkin. First he wrote the number, then drew a picture. We used a ruler to measure height, a measuring tape to measure circumference, and a scale to measure weight. 

In retrospect, 8 pumpkins was WAY too many for a little guy. Four would have been just about perfect.

The best part, of course, was carving some of them that night!