Understanding measurements will not only help your child with daily tasks, it's a great tool for strengthening kids' mathematical abilities! It's easy:1. Take six cups of equal size from your cupboard.
2. With a measuring cup, pour different amounts of water into each cup.
3. Fill the cups with water as follows: 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/3 cup, 2/3 cup, 3/4 cup and 1 cup.
4. Line the cups up consecutively from the one containing the smallest amount of water to the one containing the largest amount of water.
5. Ask your child if all the water levels are the same.
6. Encourage your child to make comparisons and estimations and to think about how measurements led to the different water levels in the cups.
7. Ask which glass is the fullest, which cup has the third largest amount, etc.
8. Place a measuring cup out on the table (for example, a 1-cup measuring cup) and ask your child to guess if any of the glasses of water will fill the measuring cup.
9. Move the glasses around and see if your child can still tell which glasses have more or less water than the others.
10. Once your child can visually recognize the differences, pour the water from each cup into the measuring cup and have your child record the measurement. Do this for every cup.
11. You may want to have older kids begin adding these amounts together on paper, and then pouring them into the same measuring cup to see that their additions are correct in real life!
12. What amounts can you add together to make 1 cup? See how many variations your child can come up with.
13. Now comes the real test. Pull out your favorite cookie recipe and have your child measure out all of the ingredients.
14. When done, treat yourselves to some homemade, home-measured, cookies!
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