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Activity 1

20 mins

Milk and Mango Lassi

Standards Alignment

Building On

Addressing

Instructional Routines

None

First time implementing?

Learn how to use instructional routines to facilitate problem-based learning!

Materials

To Gather

Containers of different sizes

Activity Narrative

In this activity, students work with customary units of capacity for liquids (gallon, quart, and cup). The task prompts them to discern the relationship between the units, express the relationships with multiplicative comparison statements, and perform conversions to solve problems. When they identify the relationship between gallons, quarts, and cups, students reason abstractly and quantitatively (MP2).

To compare quantities given in different units, students choose which unit to use for comparison and consider the implications of their choice. Students likely will convert a value in a larger unit to a value in a smaller unit (from gallons and quarts to cups), but some may reason the other way around (from cups and quarts to gallons, ending up with fractional amounts). In grade 4, students are expected only to convert from a larger unit to a smaller one.

MLR8 Discussion Supports. To support the transfer of new vocabulary to long-term memory, invite students to chorally repeat these words or phrases in unison 1–2 times: “gallon,” “quart,” “cup.”
Advances: Representing, Speaking, Listening

Representation: Access for Perception. Give students access to connecting cubes. Invite them to use the cubes to support their thinking in a way that makes sense to them. If students need additional support, invite them to use the cubes to first build and label representations of one cup, one quart, and one gallon.
Supports accessibility for: Conceptual Processing

Launch

Groups of 2
Read the first sentence and the bullet points in the first problem.
Display a one-gallon jug (with or without milk), a one-quart container, and a one-cup container. Tell students that, when filled up, the jug holds 1 gallon.
“Here is a container that holds 1 quart of liquid. How is that amount related to the amount in the jug?” (It takes 4 quarts to fill up the jug.)
“Here is a container that holds 16 cups. How is that amount related to the amount in the jug?” (It takes 16 cups to fill up the jug.)
“Complete the statements in the first problem. Then share your responses with your partner.“
1 minute: quiet think time
1 minute: partner discussion
“Let’s use what we know about these units for measuring liquids to solve some problems.”
Explain to students that mango lassi (MAYNG-goh LAH-see) is an Indian drink, a smoothie made of mango and yogurt or milk.

Activity

5 minutes: independent work time
5 minutes: partner discussion
Monitor for:
- Which unit(s) students use to compare the amounts.
- The representations students use to reason about the quantities.

Student Task Statement

Here are 3 true statements about this jug of milk.
- This jug contains 1 gallon of milk.
- This jug contains 4 quarts of milk.
- This jug contains 16 cups of milk.
Complete each statement so that it is true:
1. One gallon is __________ times as much as 1 quart.
2. One gallon is __________ times as much as 1 cup.
3. One quart is __________ times as much as 1 cup.

For a potluck party, Priya and 3 other relatives are bringing mango lassi (MAYNG-goh LAH-see).

Who prepared the most mango lassi? Explain or show your reasoning.

guest	amount of lassi
Priya	10 cups
uncle	3 quarts
cousin	8 cups
grandma	2 gallons

How many cups of lassi did all the guests bring?
Complete this sentence: Priya’s grandma made __________ times as much lassi as Priya’s cousin. Show how you know.

Activity Synthesis

Poll the class on the unit they used to compare the amounts of lassi.
Select a student who chose each option to share the rationale behind their decision.
Display the table, with an extra column for showing the amounts in cups.

Invite students to share their responses to the questions about lassi and their reasoning, completing the table along the way.

guest	amount of lassi	amount of lassi (cups)
Priya	10 cups	10
Uncle	3 quarts	12
Cousin	8 cups	8
Grandma	2 gallons	32

Highlight that converting the amounts into the same unit helped us: see the greatest amount, find the total amount, and see how many times as much lassi one guest made compared to another guest.
To reinforce students' understanding of the relationship between the units of capacity used here, consider creating a diagram as shown:
“How does the diagram show that 1 gallon is 4 times as much as 1 quart and 16 times as much as 1 cup?”

Activity 2

15 mins

Clay for Art Class

Standards Alignment

Building On

Addressing

Instructional Routines

MLR6 Three Reads

First time implementing?

Learn how to use instructional routines to facilitate problem-based learning!

Materials

None

Activity Narrative

In this activity, students convert units of weight—pounds and ounces—and use multiplicative reasoning to solve problems about weight. As in the prior activity, students can choose to reason in either of the two units, but the given quantities encourage conversion from pounds to ounces.

This activity uses MLR6 Three Reads. Advances: reading, listening, representing.

Launch

Groups of 2
“Have you used clay to make an object or build a figure?”
If students are unfamiliar with modeling clay, consider displaying some and showing how it can be used for making shapes and objects.

MLR6 Three Reads

Display only the problem stem, without revealing the question(s).
“We are going to read this problem 3 times.”
1st Read: “At a craft store, clay is sold in packs of different sizes: 1 pound, 24 ounces, 3 pounds, and 5 pounds. An art teacher needs 120 ounces of clay for her class.”
“What is this situation about?”
1 minute: partner discussion
Listen for and clarify any questions about the context.
2nd Read: “At a craft store, modeling clay is sold in packages of . . . .”
“Name the quantities. What can we count or measure in this situation?”
30 seconds: quiet think time
1 minute: partner discussion
Share and record all quantities.
Reveal the question(s).
3rd Read: Read the entire problem aloud, including the questions.
“What are some strategies we can use to solve this problem?”
30 seconds: quiet think time
1 minute: partner discussion
“Who can remind us of the relationship between pounds and ounces?” (One pound is equivalent to 16 ounces. One pound is 16 times as heavy as 1 ounce.)

Activity

5 minutes: independent work time
3 minutes: partner discussion
Monitor for students who use ounces to solve the first set of problems and those who use pounds (by first finding out that 120 ounces is 7 pounds and 8 ounces or pounds).

Activity Synthesis

Select students to briefly share their responses and their reasoning.
“Did anyone reach the same conclusion but reasoned in a different way?”

Student Task Statement

At a craft store, clay is sold in packs of different sizes: 1 pound, 24 ounces, 3 pounds, and 5 pounds.

An art teacher needs 120 ounces of clay for her class.

Would she have enough clay if she bought each of the following combinations? Explain or show your reasoning.

	1-pound pack	24-ounce pack	3-pound pack	5-pound pack
A	1		1
B	1	1	1	1
C		1	2

Decide if each statement is true or false. Explain or show your reasoning.
1. A 3-pound pack weighs 2 times as much as a 24-ounce pack.
2. If we combine a 1-pound pack, a 3-pound pack, and a 5-pound pack, we’d have 6 times as much clay as what’s in a 24-ounce pack.

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Lesson 14

Weight and Capacity Measurements

Warm-up

Number Talk: A Lot of Thousands

Instructional Routines

First time implementing?

Materials

Activity Narrative

Launch

Activity

Student Task Statement

Student Response

Advancing Student Thinking

Are You Ready for More?

Activity Synthesis

Activity 1

Milk and Mango Lassi

Standards Alignment

4.MD.A.1

Instructional Routines

First time implementing?

Materials

Activity Narrative

Launch

Activity

Student Task Statement

Activity Synthesis

Activity 2

Clay for Art Class

Standards Alignment

4.MD.A.1

Instructional Routines

First time implementing?

Materials

Activity Narrative

Launch

Activity

Activity Synthesis

Lesson Synthesis

Have a correction or suggestion?

Standards Alignment

4.NBT.B

Student Response

Advancing Student Thinking

Are You Ready for More?

Student Task Statement

Student Response

Advancing Student Thinking

Are You Ready for More?

4.MD.A.2

4.OA.A.2

4.MD.A.2

4.OA.A.2