Capacity

As part of our ongoing study of measurement, we spent some time this week learning about capacity.  Capacity is the maximum amount that something can hold. Since we are learning about goldfish, what better tool to use to learn about capacity than goldfish crackers!

Each student was given a 3 oz. cup filled with goldfish crackers.  Their first job was to estimate the number of crackers their cup contained.  Estimating is a hard thing for kindergartners to do because they really like to be right.  I convinced them to try so they estimated how many crackers they had and wrote the number on their paper.  Next they had to count them to see how many they actually had.

   

   

Then each student got a 5 oz. cup.  We had to predict whether or not the contents of the smaller cup would fit into the larger cup.  It did.  But then we tried filling the 5 oz. cup and pouring the contents from that into the smaller cup.  What do you think happened?  Ask your kindergartner!

   

   

I think the best part of the lesson was eating the goldfish after we finished using them.  So, if your kindergartner told you they ate their Math on Tuesday…they did!  Ask them what capacity means, too!