3-D Measurement Man

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Archive : 2007 : January : 28

3-D Measurement Man
By trexteach

When I taught 2nd grade, I went to a nearby, (Well, actually about an hour away!) dairy factory where they generously supplied me with new, empty pint and quart containers. I collected some used half-pint cartons from the
cafeteria, cleaned them out, and taped them shut. I also cleaned out one of my empty gallon jugs. I attached them all together with yarn so that they looked like the "Gallon Guy" the others have attached to their posts. I added a face and we called him the Measurement Man. I hung him up as a display that we could continue to refer to when we discussed liquid measure. I also sent home a

Measurement Man page so the students and their parents could see the relationships. I actually had some parents thank me for this because they said it even made seeing the relationships easier for them to remember!

I kept him stored in a locker for future use. The kids really benefitted from this hands-on 3-D model.

With my 5th graders (Your second graders could even use this too, though), I use the giant "G" (for gallon) that has 1 "Q" (for quart) filling up each corner of the "G". Then there are 2 "P"s (for pints) that fill up the "Q". Next, there are 2 "C"s (for cups) inside each "P". This is a quick thing the students can memorize and write onto their worksheets, quizzes, or test papers to help them remember the relationships. (Sorry--This is much easier to understand visually than written out like I have!)