How Much Cereal?
In this unit students consolidate their knowledge of volume by using kitchen measuring cups in a variety of measuring tasks. A stations approach is employed with all the tasks based around the theme of cereal.
accurately measure volume using standard kitchen measuring cups
Volume is an important concept both in mathematics and real life. This unit gives students a chance to consolidate practical measuring skills using cups and fractions of cups and to compare the results
Resources
- Parent helper to supervise the baking if possible
- Recipe on copymaster 3
- Station 1
- packet of muesli or scroggin mix (can reuse)
- kitchen measuring cups
- Station 2
- ingredients for creating a cereal mix e.g. rice bubbles, cornflakes,raisins, dried apricots and sesame seeds
- kitchen measuring cups and measuring spoons
- bowls and spoons (one per student)
- Station 3
- rice bubbles
- honey
- sugar
- butter
- pot and heating element
- mixing spoon
- baking tray
- kitchen scales
- Station 4
- box of cereal (can reuse)
- kitchen measuring cups
- rice
- large bowl or container
- cornflakes
- plastic bag
- Station 5
- a variety of different containers e.g. jam jars, ice cream containers and small boxes
- rice
- kitchen measuring cups
This unit consists of five Stations where students are given the opportunity to explore volume using everyday materials. Lists of the required materials are given above.
Over the five Sessions try to ensure that everyone has been involved in each of the Stations. (This may require that some Stations have to be repeated.)
When every student has been involved in each Station, bring the class together to discuss what they have discovered. You might use questions such as the ones below.
Tell me about the different Stations. What do you remember?
Which Station did you like best?
Which Station was the hardest?
What did all of the Stations have in common?
What was different about the Stations?
Station 1
In this station provide students with a packet of muesli or scroggin mix and ask them to analyse the cereal (or scroggin mix) by separating out the different ingredients and measuring the volume of each ingredient. See copymster 1 for student instructions.
When the students have completed the activity you might like to ask them questions similar to the following:
What ingredients did you find?
What ingredient had the biggest volume?
How many cups or spoons did it fill?
What ingredient had the smallest volume?
How many cups or spoons did it fill?
How many more cups or spoons were there of ingredient X than of ingredient Y?
Station 2
In this station provide students with a variety of different ingredients to use to create their own cereal. Possibilities include rice bubbles, cornflakes, raisins, dried apricots and sesame seeds. Students measure varying amounts of each ingredient to create a single serving of their own unique cereal and then record their recipe. See copymaster 2 for student instructions.
When the students have completed the activity you might like to ask them questions similar to the following:
Tell us about your recipe.
What ingredients did you use?
Which ingredients did you use the most of?
How many spoons of it did you use?
What ingredients did you use the least of?
How many spoons of it did you use?
How many more spoons did you use of ingredient X than of ingredient Y?
Did it taste nice?
Station 3
In this Station students make Rice Bubble and Honey Square using the recipe on copymaster 3.
When the students have completed the activity you might like to ask them questions similar to the following:
What was the hardest part of the recipe?
Did it taste nice in the end?
What ingredients did you use?
What ingredient had the biggest volume?
How many cups did it fill?
What ingredient had the smallest volume?
How many spoons did it fill?
How many more cups were there of ingredient X than of ingredient Y?
Station 4
In this Station students measure the volume of cereal contained in a box, then measure the total volume of the box and compare the two measurements. They then take 1 cup of cornflakes, crush them into tiny flakes and re-measure their volume. See copymster 4 for student instructions.
When the students have completed the activity you might like to ask them questions similar to the following:
What volume of cereal did you measure?
What was the volume of the box?
How much bigger volume did was the box have?
What happened to its volume when you crushed the cornflakes?
Station 5
At this Station provide students with a range of containers, such as jam jars, ice cream containers and small boxes. Students measure the volume of these containers using rice and kitchen measuring cups. They then place the containers in order according to their volume. See copymster 5 for student instructions.
When the students have completed the activity you might like to ask them questions similar to the following:
What container had the biggest volume?
How many cups did it take to fill it?
What container had the smallest volume?
How many cups did it take to fill it?
Did any containers have the same volume?
This week at home students observe household tasks and record examples of volume measurement (e.g. baking, laundry/dishwasher detergent, mixing up drink sachets).
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| HowMuchCerealCM1.pdf | 47.87 KB |
| HowMuchCerealCM2.pdf | 45.31 KB |
| HowMuchCerealCM3.pdf | 49.96 KB |
| HowMuchCerealCM4.pdf | 48.05 KB |
| HowMuchCerealCM5.pdf | 46.42 KB |
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