Ingrid and Dieter Schubert's adorable picture book There’s Always Room for One More (Asheville, NC: Front Street, 2001) provides the perfect context for learning about capacity as it relates to weight. In the story, Beaver builds a boat. As his friends join him, the boat sinks deeper with each new passenger. What happens when butterfly hops aboard? Read the book to find out!
For this activity, you will need tinfoil, a pan of water (or use the sensory table if you're in a preschool classroom) and marbles or plastic blocks.
Instructions: Children form boats out of heavy-duty tinfoil and place them in a water-filled pan or sensory table. They count and place counters in the boat until it goes down. Ah-oh!
In this video, Knox used large glass marbles. He counted as he placed marbles one-by-one into the boat. When the boat suddenly sunk with 16 marbles, I made sure he understood that the capacity of the boat wasn't 16--it was 15. I was surprised he knew right off that 15 came before 16. Pretty good for a 5 year old! Try this with your children. They will love it!
If you like this idea, you'll love the bunches of lessons, games, and teaching tips in my new book Math-Positive Mindsets: Growing a Child's Mind without Losing Yours published by Math Solutions and available on Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/Math-Positive-Mindsets-Growing-Childs-without/dp/1935099841/ref=sr_1_1?dchild.... My website
https://www.carriecutler.com/ also has dozens of ideas for teachers and parents of PreK to Grade 5. Check it out!
