Estimate and Measure Weight

10 min

Narrative

The purpose of this Warm-up is to elicit the idea that weight can be measured. While students may notice and wonder many things about this image, how weight can be measured is the important discussion point.

Launch

  • Groups of 2
  • Display the image.
  • “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”
  • 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
  • “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
  • 1 minute: partner discussion
  • Share and record responses.

Student Task

What do you notice? What do you wonder?

A woman working at a fruit and vegetable stand.

Solution Steps (3)
  1. 1
    Observe the image of a produce stand
    Notice fruits/vegetables of different sizes, a scale for weighing
  2. 2
    Think about what might be measured
    Wonder about weight of different produce items
  3. 3
    Connect to concept of weight
    Understand weight is how heavy an object is

Sample Response

Students may notice:
  • There are fruits and vegetables that are different sizes.
  • There are more of the smaller fruits or vegetables than the large yellow vegetables.
  • There’s a scale to weigh the fruits and vegetables.
Students may wonder:
  • Is the large yellow thing a fruit or vegetable?
  • What is in the large coolers?
  • How many does she have altogether?
  • Are the larger vegetables more expensive?
  • How much do the little fruits weigh?
  • How much do one of the large yellow vegetables weigh?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
  • “Today we’ll begin learning about weight. Weight is how heavy an object is. When are some times that we think about weight?” (when buying fruit or vegetables at the store, when getting a check-up at the doctor’s office)
  • “How could weight be used to decide how much a piece of fruit should cost?” (The more the fruit weighs, the more it’s going to cost because we’re getting more.)
Standards
Building Toward
  • 3.MD.2·Measure and estimate liquid volumes and masses of objects using standard units of grams (g), kilograms (kg), and liters (l). Add, subtract, multiply, or divide to solve one-step word problems involving masses or volumes that are given in the same units, e.g., by using drawings (such as a beaker with a measurement scale) to represent the problem.
  • 3.MD.A.2·Measure and estimate liquid volumes and masses of objects using standard units of grams (g), kilograms (kg), and liters (l).<span>Excludes compound units such as <span class="math">\(\hbox{cm}^3\)</span> and finding the geometric volume of a container.</span> Add, subtract, multiply, or divide to solve one-step word problems involving masses or volumes that are given in the same units, e.g., by using drawings (such as a beaker with a measurement scale) to represent the problem.<span>Excludes multiplicative comparison problems (problems involving notions of “times as much”); see Glossary, Table 2.</span>

30 min

10 min