Teaching volume can be a daunting task. The materials I needed were not at my fingertips, so I needed to get creative. I knew I had one thing, and that was 3 tubs full of snap cubes. Why not have the students build the rectangular prisms, so they can break it apart and count how many it took to make it?
After I modeled and explained what volume is, I gave students the chance to build some rectangular prisms. On my Promethean Board I posted a shape where you can see the number cubes in each direction, and I asked the students to build a model of the picture on the board. Once they built it correctly, they had my permission to destroy it and count the number of cubes it took to build it, and they found the volume.
We practiced it a few more times and then I showed them the formula. The students would build the rectangular prism, destroy and count, then check with the formula!
Since I have taught volume this way, I will definitely continue this in the years to come. My students were able to conceptually see volume and how and why the formula works.
FREEBIE time! Below is a link for my Volume Anchor Chart Freebie!
Check out the other resources I have for teaching volume in my TPT store!
Until next time,
My students love using snap cubes for volume. Recently I gathered up all of the boxes I could find at my school and had my students find the volume of them with different measurements. They loved that too!
ReplyDeleteSuch a good idea Elizabeth! I'll have to do that next year! Thanks for stopping by! :)
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