Fun with water

Summer has definitely arrived here in Colorado which has inspired me to use water play for this weeks activity.

Capacity is an area that can be difficult to teach in school. Ideally you want to give the children lots of containers and lots of water and just let them explore, while you, as teacher, hover in the background prompting their exploring and learning. Take a class of 24 +children and a classroom full of books, art work and many other piles of things to keep dry and you can start to see why this idea may not always be a sensible one in the classroom.

However, take a sunny day, one or two children and a garden that loves water and this activity can be lots of fun.

So, ready for some fun?

You will need: lots of containers of varying shapes and sizes, these could include spoons, bowls, cups, plastic boxes, buckets etc.

Location: Best place for this to happen is outside but it can be done in the kitchen or bathroom

Activity: Set your child / children up in the garden with lots of containers and several buckets of water or a paddling pool full. Encourage your child to play with the water and containers. Tip water from one container to another. Count how many of one container may fit into another. As your child plays then your job is to prompt with thoughts, ideas and suggestions.

Preschool
The best way of doing this activity with these little munchkins is to give them as many different sized containers as you have and do lots of comparisons with them. There are two main objectives for this age range. The first one is to expose your child to the language of capacity; capacity, volume, biggest, smallest, more, less, least. The other objective is to introduce the idea that liquid can fill a container and different containers hold different amounts. If you do have a measuring jug and / or spoons then briefly introduce these with their units of measure and ensure you include these as you play.

• Which container is the biggest? So, which container holds the most liquid?
• Which is the smallest contained? And therefore holds the least liquid?
• If we tipped the contents of this contained into that one, how many times do you think we would need to do that before it was full? Let's see if you're right.
• Can you estimate how many of these will go into this container? Let's see if your estimate was right? 
• If I tipped this half empty cup into this bucket as one of the cups we are measuring can we count it? Why not? What do we need to make sure we do with every cup before we tip it in?

5, 6 and 7 year olds
These children are starting to use units of measure and therefore using equipment with units of measure marked on. When using measuring jugs it is useful for them to understand and know what the scale sare on the side but they only need to be able to work with litres, half litres and quarter litres to begin with.They also need to be able to compare different containers and amounts of liquid. It is very important that they understand that when measuring we have to use a full unit of whatever that unit may be.

• To warm up and get going I would use the questions for the preschool children and then extend into these questions:
• If I tipped this half empty cup into this bucket as one of the cups we are measuring can we count it? Why not? What do we need to make sure we do with every cup before we tip it in?
• Shall we use the measuring jug to measure roughly how much is in this cup?
• Why don't we estimate how much is in this pot and then measure to see if we are right?
• How many litres are in this pot? 
• If I used two of these pots how many litres of water would I have altogether?

7, 8 and 9 year olds
With these children we should be starting to really use the units on the side of measuring jugs in details. They need to understand litres and millilitres and be aware of the other units too. An extension that is good for these is to use part litres and discuss the quantity in litres so using the decimal point. These children also have the knowledge and ability to start to mulitply amounts and play with the numbers a little more. It is very important that they understand that when measuring we have to use a full unit of whatever that unit may be.

• To warm up and get going I would use the questions for the previous two groups children and then extend into these questions:
• If I tipped this half empty cup into this bucket as one of the cups we are measuring can we count it? Why not? What do we need to make sure we do with every cup before we tip it in?
• How many of these cups do you think will go into this big pot? Why? (needs to be a well thought answer, not just a guess). Let's measure the capacity of the cup and then work it out and see if you were right? Let's do it and check our calculations were right?
• How much water does this bottle hold? Can you tell me in ml? and now litres?
• If this many cups go into this pot and this pot goes into this bucket 2 times, how many cups will go into the bucket?

9, 10 and 11 year olds
These children generally need a lot of consolidation on capacity. In school they will now be solving problems using capacity but may not have the practical skills and knowledge to be able to solve these well. My advice here is to use the previous groups questions and have lots of fun answering those and playing with capacity. Include lots of practice with those measuring jugs and make sure you have a go with all possible units of measure.
If your child proves to be confident at this and / or is ready for more throw some fun problems at them that you can have fun solving together.

• The outside tap drips at a rate of 1 drip, every two seconds. How long will it take to waste a bucket of water?
• A young friend / cousin has been playing with the water table? How much water has she / he wasted during the course of the day?
• The plants need a cup of water each morning and evening. How much water does it take to water the plats each day?