Thursday, May 23, 2013

US customary units: weight


     How much does an elephant weigh? 

In the US customary measurement system we use units like onces (oz), pounds (lb), and tons (T) to measure weight. So, in your opinion which unit would be more appropriate to weigh an elephant?

     As we've seen in our classroom we can convert these units (ounces to pounds, pounds to tons...) using some standards:


     So remember these and you'll be fine:

1 ton = 2,000 pounds
1 pound = 16 ounces

Homework



Activity adapted from http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/

Send your answers until Tuesday - May 28th.

Way to go guys!

Thursday, May 9, 2013

US Customary units: Liquid Volume

When we want to measure water, juice, milk, soda, and other liquid we can use units such as: gallons, quarts, pints and cups.
Today in the classroom, Grade 6 made Mr and Mrs Gallon to illustrate the relationship among these units. Here are the results:




So we learned that:

1 pint (pt) = 2 cups (c)

1 quart (qt) = 2 pints (pt)

1 gallon (gal) = 4 quarts (qt) = 8 pints (pt) = 16 cups (c)



Homework


Use the GallonBot illustration to help you answer the questions.

a. Which is greater: a quart or a pint? ________________
b. Which is less: a cup or a pint? ____________________
c. How many pints are in 2 quarts? __________________
d. How many cups are in 3 pints? ___________________
e. Which is greater: 8 cups or 1 quart? ________________
f. Which is less: 4 quarts or one gallon? _______________


Activity adapted from 

Post your answers until Tuesday - May 21st

Good job Hedra, Daniel, Danielly, Julia C., Guilherme, Julia B. and Nathan!!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

US Customary units : Length


Customary units or US Standard Units are the units of measurement that are used in the United States; different from the metric units used here in Brazil.
The first Customary units that we'll learn are the ones we use to measure length. These measures can answer questions such as: How tall are you? How big is your table? How wide is the classroom board?
We'll talk about inches (in.), feet (ft.), yards (yd.) and miles (mi.).

  • inches are small units of length. The last joint of your finger or thumb is about 1 inch (depending on how big your fingers are!). Lots of things are measured in inches from rainfall to paper length.

       If you have 12 inches of something, you have a foot.

       
                       12 inches = 1 foot
  • A long time ago, people had to use their own feet to measure things.  However, since everyone has different sized feet, it did not let everyone understand the size or distance in the same way. 


Using 12 inches put together to make feet allows for everyone to have a more accurate picture of what exactly a "foot" of length is.
  • If you have 3 feet together, you have a yard.

3 feet = 1 yard

  • When you put together 1,760 yards, you have a mile
1,760 yards = 1 mile

Miles are long distances and are mostly used to measure the distance between places which are far away from each other.  Most people refer to miles when they are driving, biking or jogging.


Remember:


1 foot = 12 inches
1 yard = 3 feet = 36 inches
1 mile = 1,760 yards = 5,280 feet = 63,360 inches


Here's a video that talks about Customary units: