As our exploration of
volume has progressed this semester, I wanted to develop the idea of estimation
with the children. I planned an activity where the children estimated how many
bear counters they would need to fill an object.
“I think 10” –Seena’s
estimation for how many bears it would take to fill the cup.
“Almost [full]…maybe
15 more bears.” –Zane
However, in this
activity as well as previous activities had varying ideas of what it means to
be full.
Children would either
leave space in the object that they were filling and say that it was full, or
they would over fill their objects to the point of being overflowing. This led
me to focus the exploration on developing a clear idea of what it means for
something to be full.
“It’s full!” – Danny
“I’m filling it.” –
Adelyn
In this activity the
children filled zip lock bags with cotton balls. With this I wanted to give the
children a clear boundary for what was full (zipping the bag closed). While I’m
not entirely sure that the children have developed a clear sense of what it
means to be full, I know they are heading in the right direction. In the future
I plan to extend these ideas by comparing tall, thin containers and shallow,
wide containers that hold similar amounts.
