Gallon Robot: Fun with Measurement and Fractions!

Who can remember how many cups are in a gallon and how many pints are in a quart? I have to admit that I used to look this information up every time I needed it. The amounts are so arbitrary and random that I couldn't seem to memorize them. That all changed when I met Mr. Gallon, whom I affectionately renamed with the gender-free term Gallon Robot.

Variations of Mr. Gallon are all over the Internet, and I'm not sure if anyone knows exactly who dreamed up the concept. I first heard about it when my older daughter Wendy was in 3rd grade. Her teacher, Sue Simon, introduced her students to this visual aid so they could easily remember the conversions between gallons, quarts, cups, and pints. The large rectangle in the middle represents one gallon, the four pink rectangles represent four quarts, the green rectangles represent pints, and the small orange rectangles represent cups. When you look at the model, it's easy to see that there are 8 pints in a gallon, 2 pints in a quart, and so on. As soon as I met Mr. Gallon, I never had to look up those amounts again! I immediately taught the model to my 5th graders and began sharing the technique with teachers.

Relating Customary Capacity Units to Fractions 
One thing that I love about Gallon Robot is how you can use this model to reinforce fraction concepts at the same time that you are reviewing customary units of capacity. I created a comprehensive packet of teaching materials to go along with the basic patterns shown above to make it easy to teach these concepts. Gallon Robot to the Rescue is available from my TpT store .

When I created the patterns for Gallon Robot, I was very careful to make each part fractionally correct so that students can explore how the units are related. After students cut out all the pieces, they can use them in a fraction lesson before assembling them into Gallon Robot. For example, when students place the four quart patterns on top of the gallon pattern, they will see that four quarts equal one gallon. The patterns are black and white outlines, and I suggest printing each part on a different color paper to help students distinguish between them.

Gallon Robot to the Rescue includes cooperative learning activities, math center games, word problems, printables, teacher demonstration pages, and more! Here are a few sample pages from this resource, including a fun game called Fill 'Er Up in which students answer questions, spin a spinner, and add cups, pints, or quarts to their gallon buckets. The first to fill his or her bucket is the winner!

Gallon Robot to the Rescue is not a new product, but I did give it a brand new cover today. As I was working on updating it, I decided to feature it on my blog because it's a terrific, easy-to-use resource for teaching a difficult topic. If you teach customary units of capacity, you owe it to yourself to take a look at this time-saving resource. I also updated the cover of Customary Measurement Conversions, and if you don't have that ebook, you might want to check it out, too. With the activities in these two resources, your students will have fun as they learn to master customary measurement conversions!

Fun with Customary Measurement Conversions

Teaching Resources and a Measurement Freebie!

Teaching measurement can seem like such a struggle. Even when you provide plenty of opportunities for kids to practice with hands-on activities, they just don't seem to catch on.

It doesn't help that our customary system of measurement makes absolutely no sense whatsoever! Twelve inches to a foot, three feet to a yard, sixteen cups to a gallon... where is the logic? Bring on the metric system! Everything is based tens which corresponds perfectly to our base ten number system.

Unfortunately, I don't think the United States will be switching to the metric system any time soon, so we are stuck trying to teach the customary system in a way that makes sense. As with any math skill, the best way to begin is with concrete, hands-on practice using actual measuring devices like rulers, yard sticks, cups, quarts, and gallons. However, even after students practice and explore with real objects, many students have trouble converting units of measurement because they don't know the basic units fluently. If you don't know that there are sixteen cups in a gallon, you're not going to be able to convert cups to gallons without consulting a reference.

Measurement Foldable Freebie 

One way to deal with the problem is to have kids take notes in foldables and store those foldables in notebooks. Keeping them in interactive notebooks ensures that the information is handy when they need it. Measurement foldables are especially effective, so I developed this Customary Measurement Foldable to share with you as a freebie.

To create the foldable, print the two pages back to back. Fold the page in half on the vertical dotted line and cut the solid lines to form flaps. Students can lift up each flap and fill in the basic conversion units during your lesson. If you want to have them use the foldable in an interactive math notebook, you'll only need to print out the page with the measurement terms. To make sure it fits into any notebook, reduce the image to 85% of the original size when you print copies. Have your students fold them, cut the flaps, and glue the backs of the foldables into their journals.

Customary Measurement Conversions Pack
Measurement is a hot topic at this time of year, so I created a HUGE 70-page packet of measurement review activities and assessments aligned to 4th and 5th grade Common Core Standards. It's called Customary Measurement Conversions, and it includes activities, math center games, word problems, measurement task cards, and assessments.

Field-tested and Kid-Approved
Some of the activities were ones I had previously developed for my classroom, like the matching game my students are playing in the photo below. Matching games are so simple, but they are really effective for helping kids memorize basic units of measurement. They're also great to use in math centers and math stations because they can be played almost anywhere.

Unlike the matching games, Monster Math Mix-up was brand new untested. I always test my resources with students before publishing them, so I asked my Facebook Fans if anyone would volunteer to test Monster Math Mix-up with their students. Quite a few teachers agreed to do so, and I was thrilled to get a thumbs up from every single class.They LOVED the game!

I especially loved the feedback I received from Denise Bishop's 4th graders. The provided WRITTEN feedback! Here's what they wrote:

"Monster Math Mix Up was a fantastic game! The problems were great and they were at our level. The puzzles where funny and colorful. We fully understood the directions and didn't need any assistance from Ms. Bishop. We could have used this while we were doing the measurement unit and it is a good review for us. Thank you."

I also loved a collection of photos I received from Roseanne Welte's classroom. Here's one of a student putting together one of the monster puzzles, and you can see the Monster Mix-up spinner in the background. Reading those comments and seeing those pictures made me miss those days in the classroom! I want to thank the other 4th and 5th grade teachers who helped me as well. They all gave me terrific feedback! If you want to see the entire Customary Measurement Conversions Pack, you can click this link to preview it online or click the image below to find it on TpT.

Thanks, Digital Classroom Clipart! 
This post wouldn't be complete without me taking time to thank Digital Classroom Clipart for the amazing measurement clipart in this product. It just so happens that this very talented artist is my daughter Wendy!

When I started planning this unit on customary conversions, I begged Wendy to create a collection of measurement clipart for me to use because I couldn't find what I needed anywhere else. If you like it, you can purchase this collection from the Digital Classroom Clipart TpT store. If you do, please rate it and leave her feedback. In case you are wondering, yes, I did purchase it, and I left her feedback, too. It's so nice to have a talented artist in the family!