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Meet Mr. Gallon

Subjects

• Arts & Humanities
  --Visual Arts
• Mathematics
  --Measurement

Grade

• K-2
• 3-5

Brief Description

Use Mr. Gallon to help your students learn about liquid measurement.

Objectives

Students

• create a Mr. Gallon "sculpture" to help them learn and remember liquid-measurement formulas.
• use Mr. Gallon to complete an activity sheet that includes liquid-measurement equations.

Keywords

measurement, liquid, liquid measurement, gallon, quart, pint, cup, Mr. Gallon, Gallon Man

Materials Needed

• colored paper (paper of four different colors)
• glue, tape, or staples

Lesson Plan

Do your students have difficulty remembering that

• 2 cups = 1 pint?
• 2 pints = 1 quart?
• 4 quarts = 1 gallon?

Mr. Gallon to the rescue!

Introduce your students to Mr. Gallon. Build a classroom-scale Mr. Gallon, and let students use cutout colored-paper rectangles and squares to build their own Mr. Gallon. He's sure to help them remember those difficult-to-learn formulas.

Mr. Gallon's body is constructed from a square that represents a gallon. The square can be any size. For a classroom-scale Mr. Gallon you might use a square that measures a foot or more on each side. For the student-made individual Mr. Gallons, that square might be 8- x 8-inches in size. If you use a square that size, cut out four 8- x 8-inch squares of different colors.

• The first 8 x 8 square will be used to form Mr. Gallon's body.
• The second 8 x 8 square will be cut into four 2- x 8-inch strips. Each strip will represent ¼ of a gallon, or 1 quart. Students will attach those "quart" strips to Mr. Gallon's body to form two upper arms and two upper legs.
• The third 8 x 8 square will be cut into eight 1- x 8-inch strips. Each strip will represent 1/8 of a gallon, or 1 pint. Students will attach those "pint" strips to Mr. Gallon's upper arms and upper legs to form the two bones in his lower arms and lower legs.
• The fourth 8 x 8 square will be cut into sixteen 1- x 4-inch strips. Each strip will represent 1/16 of a gallon, or 1 cup. Students will attach those "cup" strips to Mr. Gallon's lower arms and lower legs to form four fingers and four toes.

The result is a Mr. Gallon who looks like this!

More Mr. Gallon Resources/Images

• Gallon Man Measures Up
• Gallon Man Created in MicroSoft EXCEL
• Gallon Man Project
• Gallon Man Makes a New Friend
• Gallon Man Song
• Mr. Gallon

As a follow-up to this activity, have students write stories about Mr. Gallon. In their stories, Mr. Gallon might be a super hero. What are his special powers?

Assessment

Provide students with math problems that involved measurement equations such as

• 2 quarts = ____ pints
• 1 gallon = ____ pints
• 1 quart = ____ cups

Lesson Plan Source

EducationWorld.com

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

FINE ARTS: Visual Arts
GRADES K - 4
NA-VA.K-4.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
NA-VA.K-4.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines

MATHEMATICS: Measurement
GRADES Pre-K - 2
NM-MEA.PK-2.1 Understand Measurable Attributes of Objects and the Units, Systems, and Processes of Measurement
NM-MEA.PK-2.2 Apply Appropriate Techniques, Tools, and Formulas to Determine Measurements
GRADES 3 - 5
NM-MEA.3-5.1 Understand Measurable Attributes of Objects and the Units, Systems, and Processes of Measurement
NM-MEA.3-5.2 Apply Appropriate Techniques, Tools, and Formulas to Determine Measurements

See more Lesson Plans of the Day in our Lesson Plan of the Day Archive. (There you can search for lessons by subject too.)

For additional math lesson plans, see these Education World resources:

• Lesson Planning: Math
• Math Subject Center
• Teacher-Submitted Lesson Plans: Math
• Calculator Lessons from Texas Instruments
• Math Cross Puzzles
• It All Adds Up Puzzles
• Work Sheets from Teacher Created Materials: Math

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09/25/2006