Make a visual

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Archive : 2005 : March : 15

Make a visual
By Jaime

I make a great visual for teaching equiv measures of capacity. It is hard to describe my visual but I will give it a try..I call her Cassidy Capacity. I take a red peice of tag baord to be the body and write one gallon
on it. I then take a peice of blue tag board and cut it the long way into fourths. These then become the legs and arms (write 1 quart on each) and attach with the little brass "thingies". I then take a peice of green tag board and cut into eights and these become hands and feet (write pint on each). Yes cassidy is a little strange and has two hands and feet on each arm and leg. I then

use an orange peice of tag board and make 16ths (cups). Two of these get attached to each hand/foot to be fingers and toes. I know it sounds strange but the kids really get it! I also put a paper head on her body. They are able to look at it and see how many cups are in a quart or a gallon. I have noticed that there are companies now making these in their catalogs.

My school uses the Everyday Math program so I incorporate this visual into one of their lessons. We also play with water in the sink but more as demonstration or children taking turns coming up. I bring in a gallon milk container, half gallon milk, and then quart, pint, and cup water bottles. I label each of these containers so they see the name of them.

Good luck, let me know if you need more info, or ignore this if it sounds crazy to you!