Capacity ~~ Toilleadh
Development in Junior & Senior Infants
Capacity refers to the amount of space inside a container - what it can hold. The concept is more difficult to comprehend than length as it has more dimensions. Work on the concept of length must therefore proceed work on capacity.
Learning about capacity requires much "hands on" experiences. This may be difficult to organise with large groups, but suitable demonstrations and small group activities will help lay the foundations for understanding the concept in the early years.
Refer to the various Junior & Senior Infant text books for activities on capacity.
Objectives:
The pupils can….
v Use language appropriate to capacity….full, empty, nearly full / empty, about the same amount, holds more / less, pour, fill, funnel, container.
v Make comparisons of capacity
v Order objects by capacity
v Use non-standard units to measure capacity
Resource material:
A selection of large and small cartons, boxes and a variety of containers, sieves, colanders, funnels, polystyrene chips, sand, rice, pasta, water, Russian dolls
Relationship cards are useful to have prepared eg.
Graded development from Junior to Senior Infants:
· Free Play Allow the children handle a variety of containers and boxes of various shapes and sizes. Investigation - rolling, building, fitting them inside one another….This will familiarise the children with some of the attributes of the containers.
Careful organisation is required for this next activity. Limit the number of pupils who participate in any activity eg. to a particular group. Organise a rota. Encourage the pupils to tidy up and replace the materials after use. This activity may be part of a structured play session. Sand/water play is usually part of a free play session also.
· Introduce materials eg. dry sand in a sand bath and damp sand near the sink. Pasta or polystyrene chips are also useful. Provide containers suitable for pouring and filling, sand buckets and spades. Allow the children to play freely. Encourage more accurate pouring and filling as the children's muscular control improves. In a structured play session or as part of the maths lesson, discuss what the children are doing…ask qns about what is happening….select particular containers…what was this for? What is it made of? Pick a container that would hold water / milk / yogurt?
This is a useful opportunity for sorting containers…a set of boxes / bottles / containers with covers / without covers / containers that are not bottles.….
· Does it fit? Put a selection of individual objects into individual containers - pair of sunglasses into a glasses case, ring in a ring box, small object in a match box, teddy in a shoe box….remove the objects from their containers and ask the children to put them into the correct one…is there enough room? is there too much room?…have a variety of other boxes and containers…what will fit into these?
· full / empty Have two of the following containers eg. an egg cup, a mug, an empty drinking chocolate tin. Demonstrate the filling of each with dry sand, using a funnel. These are full. Make a set of the full containers and label the set. The children must find the matching container that is empty. What is different about each of these egg cups? Make a set of empty containers and leave on the maths table.
Similar exercises could be done for whole class demonstration using water or rice. Using damp sand…is it easy to fill the bottle? Why?
Partially fill some containers….is this full? Why not? What must we do to fill it? Is it nearly full? When will it be full? How can we make it empty?
Have a variety of matching containers.
· Fill some with sand or rice and cover with coloured paper eg. gift wrap.
· Cover some more empty ones with paper
· Leave others empty and uncovered.
Allow the children to handle the containers and guess whether they are full or empty…why do you think it is empty?…what gives you a clue? what is the difference between this container and that one? What containers are the same shape? Make a set of full and empty containers.
· holds more / less Show boxes of different sizes. Which holds more? How do you know? Time for discussion… Fill one box with polystyrene chips and pour contents into another box..Is there enough room for all the chips? Are there too many? Is there extra room in this box? Which box holds more? Make a collection of large and small containers. The children may be encouraged to bring in some materials from home.
· using a reference point - holds more than. Have a variety of containers. We want to find out what containers hold more than this mug (reference point). How can we find this out? Encourage suggestions. Encourage careful pouring or filling of the containers. Have plenty of examples and discussion. Find 3 containers that hold more than the mug. Make a set and display on the maths table.
Change the reference point eg. use a larger container or a smaller one. This will ensure plenty of practice with this type of activity.
Same activity to introduce holds less than. Do not introduce both concepts at the same time as this may confuse children. Ensure that all understand more than before moving onto less than, the following day perhaps.
· Using a non-standard unit of measure. Having established that some containers hold more than others, the children are now introduced to the concept that we can measure how much more the larger container can hold. Using a yogurt container, how many yogurt containers does it take to fill this 7 UP bottle? Demonstrate. Have a child put out a counter each time you pour in a yogurt container of sand into the bottle. This is a concrete image of the oral counting and helps keep tally.
Using the same unit of measure
· fill some containers that are smaller than the 7UP bottle
· fill some containers that are larger than the 7UP bottle - this could be done by pouring from the bottle into a larger container and adding on fills from the yogurt container. Establish this through discussion and demonstration. Which holds more the dish or the bucket?
Change the non-standard unit of measure and continue this activity.
**Remember to develop number work in parallel to the work on capacity. Encourage the children to estimate the capacity of a particular container. How many dishes do you think it will take to fill the jug? Record on bb
How many more dishes do you think it will take to fill the bottle?
To help develop the concept of conservation of capacity in the child's mind, pour the contents of the containers back into the original containers again and count.
· Holds about the same amount - Have a collection of sets of matching containers (4). We want to pick out bottles for some children that hold the same amount of water, so that all will have the same amount to drink.
Children pick out the matching containers.
· Holds about the same amount - non-identical containers. Have a collection of containers that hold about the same amount. Teddy wants 2 containers that hold the same. How can we help teddy?
· Holds most - Using the story of the Three Bears, have 3 suitably sized bowls for the bear's porridge. Daddy bear had the biggest bowl, Mammy had the middle sized and Baby had the smallest. Use polystyrene chips as porridge. Fill the bowls, using a non-standard unit to fill them eg. a small cream tub. Then use Baby Bears bowl to fill the other bowls.
Encourage the children to estimate how many of Baby Bears bowls are needed to fill Daddy Bears bowl.
Extend this to fill bottles of water for the Bears picnic. Daddy is a very thirsty bear so he needs the biggest bottle……….
This exercise could be used to teach holds less than also.
You will note that while discussing capacity, a lot of the language of other areas of measures will come into the lesson - big / small / short / tall / long / wide / narrow.
Coláiste Mhuire Gan Smál,
Luimneach