Ways to Represent Measurement Situations

10 min

Narrative

The purpose of this Warm-up is to elicit the idea that there are many mathematical contexts at a state or county fair, and to familiarize students with some possible situations before they solve problems in upcoming activities.

Launch

  • Groups of 2
  • Display the images.
  • “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 carnival.

Giant pumpkins.

Cows.

Solution Steps (2)
  1. 1
    Notice details in fair images
    →Rides, giant pumpkins, cows at a fair/carnival
  2. 2
    Generate mathematical questions
    →How much do pumpkins weigh? How many rides?

Sample Response

Students may notice:
  • There are rides.
  • There are really big pumpkins.
  • There are cows.
  • It looks like a fair or a carnival.
  • There are a lot of people walking around.
Students may wonder:
  • Why are we looking at these pictures?
  • Why are those pumpkins so big?
  • How much do those pumpkins weigh?
  • How many different rides are there?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
  • “In the next few lessons, we are going to solve problems that might come up at a fair. What are some activities that could be at a fair?” (carnival rides and games, food, animals in barns, concerts with music, shows)
  • “Where might you see math at the fair?” (using money to buy things like tickets for rides, weighing things like vegetables for contests)
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>

20 min

15 min