Week commencing 8th June

Activity 1

This week in maths we are going to learn about capacity.

First please find two empty bottles. For example a drinks bottle and a squash bottle, with squash bottle being half the size of the drinks one.

Next show your child a drinks bottle and squash bottle and ask them: ‘Which of these do you think could hold more water? Why?’

Place both containers in a washing up bowl. Use a jug of coloured water to fill the drinks bottle. Then say: ‘Look its full!’ Then pour water from the drinks bottle into a squash bottle. The squash bottle is about half full, so which container holds more? Empty the squash bottle, then fill it with coloured water. What do you think will happen if I pour the water from this squash bottle in the drinks bottle? Do this to check, and discuss how it overflows because the drinks bottle does not hold as much water as the squash bottle.

Activity 2

Prepare different size bottles. Tall and thin and wide and short, the 2^nd holding more than the 1^st, e.g. large mug and tall shampoo bottle. Ask your child to discuss which holds more. ‘How can we find out? Fill one container with coloured water and use it to fill the other as yesterday. Use a funnel if necessary. Repeat filling the other container first. Which holds more? Discuss how it was difficult to tell until you filled the containers with water because one container was tall but narrow, and the other wide but short.

Activity 3

Show your child a 1 litre bottle, e.g. squash bottle, and 4 other containers, some which hold more than a litre and some which hold less. Ask your child to guess which containers hold less than the squash bottle and which hold more. Ask them to test out their ideas by filling a container with water and pouring it into the squash bottle in a washing up bowl to catch any spillages. 

Activity 4

Show your child a jug nearly full of squash, and (plastic) cups. How many cups do you think we can fill with this jug of squash? Then carefully fill as many cups as you can. Ask your child how many cups of water might fill the jug. Then ask them to fill the cup and tip into the jug as you count. Discuss the number of cups, and how the jug was nearly full before to prevent spilling the squash, otherwise the number of cups would be the same.

Next do the following activity: 

Activity 5

Show 2 containers, e.g. bubble bath and shampoo bottles, each filled with different coloured water. Which container do you think has more water in it? Show your child a 2 litre empty bottle. Tip the water from the bubble bath bottle and mark where the water comes to on the side of the 2l bottle with the same colour pen as the water. Tip out the water. Do you think the water in the shampoo bottle will come further up than this or lower? Why? Tip the water from the shampoo bottle into the 2 litre bottle and mark where it comes too. So which bottle held more water? Show another filled container, e.g. drinks bottle and ask where the water might come to. Find out.​

Next do the following activity. You can point where the pictures should go instead of cutting them out.